A World Changing Epiphany
by MercenaryGrax
Summary: The events at the Valley of the End trigger a change in Naruto. Naruto kills Sasuke and decides to leave Konoha. Deciding to become a wanderer and lead the path of a missing nin, what will this blonde Jinchuriki do next? Pairing currently undecided.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – The Epiphany**

As Naruto stood rooted to his spot across the falls from Sasuke Uchiha, his mind kept repeating the events leading up to this point. At some point, everything in this life had gone to shit and young, thirteen year-old Naruto couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself as he watched Sasuke preparing to use his final attack of this long, drawn-out battle: the Chidori (One Thousand Birds). This is a technique taught to the traitorous Uchiha during the one month break during the Chunin Exams by their sensei, Kakashi Hatake.

 _Heh, sensei. What a lousy term to use for that man. What did he ever teach us as a team? Nothing. Tree-climbing was far too simple, and he did little else to help us. But when it came to the teme? Oh, the teme got_ everything _! Kakashi is just like all the others in the village. I should've just talked to Jiji or Tsunade-baa-chan and gotten this lousy team fixed up or something. Too late for that now thanks to the teme and his lousy decisions._

Chuckling quietly to himself, the blonde Uzumaki youth looked quietly towards the sky, once more looking back to the start of this mission and even further back than that. _I wonder. When did Sasuke's jealousy of me first start? Between his superiority and inferiority complexes, I'm honestly not surprised. But when did it_ start _?_

Rather than try to understand Sasuke's rash actions and the lousy decision-making skills the Uchiha had shown throughout his life, Naruto decided to instead return his focus to the mission at hand. The mission had started off as well as could be expected based on the information they had. Naruto would have gone after Sasuke regardless of his orders, if only to beat some sense into the dumb bastard. However, the mission and his other teammate, Sakura Haruno, only furthered his determination to see his chosen course through to its end. After all, once Naruto Uzumaki makes a promise to someone, he intends to keep it regardless of how much it might hurt him in the end.

 _Why did I ever make such a stupid promise to that bitch? I can't understand what I ever saw in her. All she does is beat me when I try to be kind to her or cheer her up after the teme's refusals to her date offers. It's almost as if being a nice guy in this world will just come back to bite you in the ass._ Sighing heavily to himself, the orange-clad ninja looked into the deranged and transformed Sasuke's eyes and frowned to himself. _I honestly don't care anymore. That pink-haired monkey can rot for all I care. But I need to focus now._

In an instant, Naruto, clad in his basic Kyuubi cloak, charged up a Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere) and prepared to leap across and end this battle. However, whereas before Naruto would have simply done his best to knock the bastard unconscious and then drag him back home to Konohagakure, now…now he wasn't so sure. _After all, what's to stop the teme from simply running off again? I don't even know if my teammates for this mission are still alive. Those goons of Orochimaru-teme's were serious about completing their mission, and they have more experience than this team's individual members have accumulated, I'm sure. They could be lying dead out there, beaten by the Sound Four, and I might never find out if I lose to Sasuke here._

As he and Sasuke leaped at one another, bringing their attacks to the fore and preparing for one last clash, Naruto's mind continued to wander. _The teme is so far gone now that it's highly unlikely he'll ever come to his senses and see that the path he's chosen is the wrong one. Revenge? It will only consume him. He should have focused more on restoring his clan before seeking vengeance upon someone leagues beyond him in terms of skill, strength, and intelligence. But, as usual, the teme is too damn dumb to see it. Well, too damn stupid and arrogant I should say._

With a soft laugh to himself, Naruto decided on a new course of action right here and now. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto deflected Sasuke's Chidori to the side and plunged the Rasengan right into Sasuke's chest, over where his heart lay. There was no way he would aim for his head, not when his decision included those precious eyes of his. _Sorry Sasuke, but not only do I have to kill you to end your hatred and the pain you will cause if you continue to exist, but I'm going to pluck those eyes straight from your skull and keep them from that lousy snake bastard. I could destroy them, but I think I could make better use of them if they were intact._

Approaching the downed form of Sasuke, Naruto kneeled down and stared into his unconscious face shortly after the Uchiha lost grip on his transformation. "Sorry teme, but I'm afraid this is it for you. This is as far as you go. The villagers may forgive you for your crimes, but you will only continue to hurt those precious to me, among many others in this world. I'm simply doing the world, and you, a favor. Good-bye." With one quick stroke, Naruto severed Sasuke Uchiha's head from his body before plucking the Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eye) from his skull. Not long after, the eyes were sealed away into a simple storage scroll where they would remain safe, away from those who would wish to misuse them.

Rising from his crouched state, Naruto stared quietly down at the body of his former teammate. _I tried to be kind to you teme. I tried to be your friend and you threw it all right back in my face. But…thanks to you, I finally see the truth of things. No matter what I do, the people of Konoha will never see me for what I am. Instead, I'll always be a reminder of the Kyuubi's crimes that night. I wonder if I truly have any friends there, or if I'm just somebody they know. The Ichiraku's, Tsunade-baa-chan, Shizune…maybe a few others…I'm certain they genuinely care for me. However…the others? I don't even know who I could even begin to trust in that village. If I want to live free and find the happiness that others take for granted, I don't have any other choice._

Looking off in a random direction, Naruto shrugged his shoulders before looking back down at the Uchiha's body. Slowly, Naruto removed his hitai-ate (forehead protector) and, using one of his kunai, made a slash clean through it before dropping it roughly on the deceased traitor's body. _No longer will I be a shinobi of Konohagakure. From this day forth, I set out on my own to find my own path in life. I do hope that those few I'm leaving behind can forgive me for leaving them like this. I probably won't look any better than this traitor of an Uchiha does for betraying them to join up with one of Konoha's biggest criminals. Kami, I know they're going to be out for my blood once they see this teme's body in this state. After all, he's their precious Uchiha, the one they all believed in and cherished beyond all others. Tch. Knowing the people of Konoha, they'll forgive him for his crimes and probably claim he died a hero, trying to bring the 'Demon' down once and for all._

With a sad smile, Naruto found himself chuckling quietly as the sky began to pour rain down upon the battlefield. The Valley of the End had been wrecked during this battle, and he wondered if this place would be restored or if they'd simply leave it in ruins the way it was now. In the end, Naruto Uzumaki decided it didn't quite matter. So with a sigh, realizing that somebody would likely be along shortly to see what happened here, Naruto leapt off and took off in the direction he looked towards before. _I need to put as much distance between the village and me as I can before they start their search. Then, I need to get stronger. There's no way in Hell I can stay as I am now. I'm weak right now, barely even qualified to be called a shinobi. But that's okay; I'm going to become someone that can look after themselves. I'm going to become strong enough to protect not just my precious people, but those who can't protect themselves. After all, this world needs a hero, someone that will bring peace to the Nations, and I aim to give them all just that._

A short while after Naruto had left, a certain silver-haired, cycloptic jonin entered the area and glanced around. It didn't take long for him to spot the body of his favorite student. Nor did it take long, after approaching it, to see that Sasuke's head had been removed from his body and his Sharingan eyes were missing. But the thing that stood out even more than that was the scratched hitai-ate that could only belong to one person: Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto wasn't his favorite student. Kakashi viewed him as an imbecile and an embarrassment to the name of the Yondaime, his past jonin sensei. Time and time again, Naruto Uzumaki had proven himself to be nothing more than an idiot that couldn't quite do anything right. In fact, he was even so stupid as to ignore the obvious signs that his teammate, one Sakura Haruno, _wasn't_ interested in him! Kakashi could list so many times where he felt nothing but disappointment in his sensei's son. What made it so much worse is the fact that young Naruto held the Kyuubi inside of him, the very entity that had taken his sensei from him at so young an age! Just thinking about such a thing made the jonin's heart broil with rage!

Releasing a heavy, depressed sigh, Kakashi Hatake knelt down beside Sasuke's body and lifted it up into his arms after pocketing the abandoned hitai-ate that once belonged to the village's lone Jinchuriki. _I've failed yet another precious person. I'm sorry Sasuke. I hope that where you are in Kami's realm, you can forgive me for failing you as I have._ And with those thoughts, Kakashi was off, moving to return to Konoha and show the people what had happened to their precious Sasuke.

Back at the Valley of the End, a lone pug, one summon belonging to Kakashi, couldn't help but watch his summoner vanish out of sight. With a single glance back at the destruction caused in the immediate area, the dog summon found himself frowning deeply at the behavior and negligence of Kakashi Hatake. _Naruto, I hope that wherever you now are that you are safe. I never knew that Kakashi could feel such things for his sensei's son. When I return to the summon realm, I am going to see about removing the Hatake line from ever summoning us again. I promise you that, and like you, I don't break my promises. Nobody should have to suffer the way you have Naruto._ With that, Pakkun vanished in a puff of smoke to report what happened in the lands of Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire).

 _ **The Next Day – Konohagakure Council Chambers**_

Tsunade Senju, the busty Godaime Hokage of the village Konohagakure sighed to herself as she sat upon her chair in the room where the Councils of Konoha met on a regular basis to discuss the goings-on in the village and anything else of importance that needed discussing. However, the topic of today was something for the ears of the Shinobi Council only as it was a sensitive issue that needed to be handled both discretely and in the appropriate manner. _Naruto, why did you do this?_

As the Godaime was about to call the meeting to order and begin the discussion, the doors to the council chambers opened and the members of the Civilian Council and the elders of Konoha began to enter. Snarling, Tsunade leveled her killing intent upon the fools and ordered her ANBU to restrain them immediately.

Seeing this taking place, the one-eyed, heavily bandaged elder going by the name of Danzo found himself glancing into Tsunade's eyes. "And just why exactly are you trying to keep us out of this meeting? Whatever's going on, I believe it concerns more than just yourself and the shinobi of the village. You haven't the right to keep us from attending this meeting Tsunade."

Growling at the blatant disrespect being shown to her in front of so many people, the blonde Godaime slammed her fist onto the table before her, shattering it in the process. "You will show me the proper respect as your Hokage, _Danzo_! As for this meeting, I requested the Shinobi Council _only_. Now you will leave with your little pets or I'll force you out. Trust me when I say you **don't** want me to do that Danzo. Now shut up, turn around, and leave. Is. This. Understood you pompous pricks?!"

Narrowing his eye at the village's Hokage, the leader of ROOT simply turned on his heel and took a few steps towards the door. "As you wish _Hokage-sama_. It would seem you have a backbone in you whereas Hiruzen did not. But, let me leave you with a few parting words." With a dangerous smirk playing at his face, the old man waved one of his arms around before him. "Thanks to a certain jonin, the village _knows_ what happened. Naruto murdered the last loyal Uchiha in cold blood. Make sure you do the right thing _Tsunade_ , because you can be rest assured that if you fail to do what is best for the village that you will find yourself in for a world of trouble. And I don't make this _promise_ lightly. You will soon find out just how little you mean to this village in the grand scheme of things. Now enjoy your little party. Farewell _Godaime_."

Practically seeing red at this point, Tsunade signaled to her ANBU to place Danzo under arrest, only for some mysterious ANBU with blank masks to appear and take the lives of those ANBU loyal to Tsunade. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. "You were ordered to disband ROOT you son-of-a-bitch! On top of your threats towards me, you've just proven yourself a traitor who cannot follow orders when given! You **will** pay for this Danzo, mark my words!"

However, before anything could be done, Danzo and the other elders, Homura and Koharu, vanished from their positions while the Civilian Council stood frozen in fear. Turning to look into the eyes of their Godaime, they couldn't help but collapse to their knees and pray that she would show them mercy. What they didn't realize is that it wasn't Tsunade that they should be seeking mercy from, but the members of the Shinobi side of the council.

It didn't take long for the Civilian Council members to be restrained and taken away by a few ANBU that had just entered shortly after Danzo and his ROOT left. Those that tried to resist were executed on the spot as they would _not_ be forgiven for their betrayal.

Once this particular series of events came to an end, Tsunade Senju slumped into her seat and buried her face into her palms. As she mumbled about needing the strongest sake she could get her hands on, she barely registered the voice of one Shikaku Nara, clan head of the Nara clan and father of Shikamaru.

"Hokage-sama, I know that now might not be the best time, but we really _do_ need to discuss the current situation regarding Naruto Uzumaki and the retrieval mission you put my son in charge of. It's bothersome, but we'll also have to decide a course of action to take regarding Danzo and the possibility of a civil war within our village should things get out of hand."

Tsunade nodded slowly as she pulled her hands away from her face. She couldn't help but think about the little gaki she had bestowed her grandfather's necklace to. The beautiful blond couldn't help but sigh sadly as she realized that the odds of Naruto succeeding her position when it was time for her to retire was slim to none at this point. _Naruto, what could have caused you to feel that you needed to leave? I don't give a damn about that rotten little bastard of an Uchiha, but you're the one that brought me back here. It feels…_ wrong _now that you're gone._

With another heavy sigh, the blond Godaime nodded slowly and looked around at the Shinobi Council. "Before we begin, I want you to hear me out. Not only as your Godaime Hokage, but as a person that knows Naruto personally and has only had his best interests at heart since my return." Seeing the clan heads nod, Tsunade smiled a barely noticeable smile and continued on. "We all know the kind of person Naruto is, and more importantly, what his _dream_ is…or at least…what it _was_." After seeing another set of nods from her allies in the room, the blond woman continued on once more. "Therefore, I think it's a safe conclusion if we say that _something_ caused Naruto to feel as if he _had_ to leave the village. Now, I haven't any theories towards what this might be, or what might have been going through Naruto's mind at the time of his battle with Sasuke, but it's obvious he was forced to make a rather difficult choice. Whatever happened, whatever he decided upon, the facts of this matter are that he killed Sasuke Uchiha and took the Sharingan with him. Well, he either took them with him or destroyed them, there's no real way that we can be sure. Now, I am open to opinions and any advice you can give on this matter. Please, if you have something to say, speak up and let it be heard."

Before any of the others could say anything, the clan head of the Inuzuka clan decided to make her voice heard. Tsume Inuzuka was a feral woman and seemed like the type to not take shit from anybody. But she had always had a soft spot for young Naruto and was sad to see him go. It infuriated her to know how the villagers were reacting to the news of what took place during the Sasuke Retrieval mission.

"The first thing I want to say is that we shouldn't put a bounty out on the poor kid! Those corrupt bastards, Danzo, Homura, and Koharu are likely to try and go behind our backs to do something like that, but we need to let the Nations and other Hidden Villages know that Naruto is **not** to be harmed! If anything, he should simply be apprehended and returned to the village. Those that care for him are concerned for him and his wellbeing. I swear if anybody harms that kid…"

As Kiba's mother clenched her hands into fists hard enough to draw blood, Tsunade raised a hand and requested that she calm herself. Once she was certain that the Inuzuka matriarch had settled herself down, Tsunade began to speak in response to what was said. "I understand what you're saying Tsume, and I completely agree with you. If we want to keep Naruto-kun safe, we need to send out messengers to the other villages as soon as possible and explain the situation to them. We will most certainly _not_ be informing them about the fact that he is Konoha's Jinchuriki, but we _will_ ask them to please keep an eye out for Naruto and protect him should the need arise. I'm afraid that Konoha is not a safe place for him at this time. Then again, it's not quite safe out there, considering who's after him."

At this, most of the clan heads sighed sadly and nodded their heads in understanding. After a brief moment of silence as they contemplated what all they could do in this situation, Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, member of the Torture and Interrogation unit, and Yamanaka clan head, decided to voice his concerns. "The village does seem to be out for young Naruto-kun's blood right now. After jonin Kakashi Hatake returned with the Uchiha's headless body, he began slandering Naruto's name even further and managed to convince the general populous of our village that Naruto murdered Sasuke out of something as petty as jealousy or some such thing. Needless to say, the majority bought the garbage he was feeding them and the worst of it happens to be the fan girls that practically worshipped the ground the Uchiha walked on. I'm ashamed to say that my own daughter, Ino…happens to be among their number. It didn't take much for her to believe that Naruto would do such a 'horrible thing to her precious Sasuke-kun'."

With that, everyone in the Council chambers sighed heavily and shook their heads sadly. After a moment, Hiashi Hyuga, Hinata's father and the head of the Hyuga clan, spoke up. "It's depressing to see what has become of the state of our ninja these days. If the Civilian Council hadn't managed to worm their way into power and corrupted the academy as they did, I have a feeling that our fresh Genin wouldn't be anything like they are now. I'm disappointed in this village and what has become of it."

Seeing the others nodding in agreement with him, Hiashi continued on. "But back onto the topic of Naruto." Letting his lips quirk upwards into a cheery smile, the Hyuga clan head continued to speak. "I have to admit that I'm thankful to the young Uzumaki. Not only did he help set my nephew back on the right track into becoming the kind of person he was meant to be, but he helped my daughter, Hinata, to better herself in ways I could never have imagined. I have never seen Hinata smile so much since her mother's death as I have when she talks about Naruto. The love she feels for that boy is something to cherish and I only wish she had the courage to tell Naruto how she felt before this happened. Now…I fear she may never get her chance." Sighing sadly, the Hyuga head went quiet and stared down at his hands as he lost himself to his thoughts.

Once it became obvious that Hiashi wasn't going to continue, one Chouza Akimichi, the head of the Akimichi clan and father of Choji, took his turn to speak. "I know we would all like to reminisce about the boy, but we also need to focus on the issue here. The first thing that needs to be done is that Kakashi needs to be made an example of. He has practically incited a riot, but more than that he neglected two members of his Genin squad and focused primarily on the Uchiha, even going so far as to teach him a jutsu used specifically for _assassinations_ despite the fact Sasuke was mentally unstable. If what Jiraiya reported about the event that took place on the roof of the hospital not that long ago is to be believed, then Sasuke wasn't against using that jutsu to try and kill his own **teammate**! As a jonin sensei and an ex-ANBU captain, not to mention a student of the Yondaime, Naruto's **father** , he should have used better judgment regarding his Genin team! There is no way that we can excuse that monster for what he's done."

Tsunade nodded her head in agreement and looked around at the other clan heads. "I concur with Chouza's assessment of jonin sensei Kakashi Hatake. I move that we remove him from active duty and strip him of not only his rank, but his hitai-ate as well. For his failures and crimes against one Naruto Uzumaki, he has proven that he is unfit for duty and deserves to be punished as befitting his crimes. If you agree, I will personally oversee his punishment with any volunteers amongst this group. We will seal his chakra and remove his borrowed Sharingan eye as well. It could be put to better use than in an inept shinobi's skull. What say you?"

Before anyone could say anything, an ANBU that had remained in the room after the others disappeared with the Civilian Council members decided to add her input. "I think I speak for the entirety of the ANBU when I say that we support this measure Hokage-sama. Kakashi Hatake is no longer the man that was once respected as a skilled ANBU captain. Now he is simply a pathetic shell of his former self and deserves what's coming to him. Naruto Uzumaki was nothing but kind to the majority of people in Konohagakure and, despite leading the ANBU on numerous chases throughout the village, we actually quite enjoyed his pranks and looked forward to whatever he came up with next. Besides that, it was good training if you think about it. Not only for the ANBU, but for Naruto himself as well. His stealth skills and speed were nothing to scoff at and we always found him to be a pretty impressive individual. Hatake's views on young Naruto are misguided and the views of a pathetic excuse for a person. So again, you have the vote of the ANBU."

Hearing this, and seeing the ANBU known as Cat, or better known by her actual name of Yugao Uzuki, speak out on Naruto's behalf caused Tsunade to crack a smile. She was quite pleased that she had the support of an ANBU captain in regards to the circumstances surrounding Naruto at this moment in time. So, nodding in response to the violet-haired woman, the Hokage turned to the Shinobi Council and awaited their verdict.

Glancing around at his peers, Shikaku Nara nodded and turned his attention to Tsunade Senju once more. It would seem that the lazy man had taken up the position of spokesperson for the Shinobi Council, despite how bothersome it was to do so. "It would seem we are all in agreement then. It's bothersome, and the punishment is severe, but it fits his crimes and would send a message to the others in the village, _especially_ the ninja population. But I'd like to take this a step further with a suggestion Hokage-sama, if you'll permit me to continue of course?"

Tsunade simply quirked a brow and nodded to show that Shikaku was permitted to continue with his line of thought. "After seeing what has become of the ninja academy and the kind of Genin being produced, I must say that the quality is sorely lacking. While the majority of the clan heirs turned out fine for the most part," at this point, the Nara clan head looked towards his friend Inoichi and frowned before offering an apologetic smile to show he really didn't mean any offense in regards to his daughter. Soon enough, he turned his attention back to the Godaime and continued. "others were sorely unprepared for what they may face in this world. But more than that most were simply unable to pass their final test to become Genin. But the worst of the lot happens to be the fan girls." At this point, everyone shuddered as their thoughts went towards the likes of Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. Thinking of his daughter and how she spent more time obsessing over the Uchiha brat rather than bettering herself not only as a kunoichi, but as a person as well, only brought tears to Inoichi's eyes as he banged his head against the table before him.

Everyone looked to the Yamanaka clan head after his action and could only smile sadly at him. Shikaku let out a loud sigh and continued speaking. "My apologies for how your daughter turned out, my friend. It's bothersome, but unless you and your wife can somehow snap your daughter out of that state, it's likely she'll either get herself killed out on a mission or may quit being a kunoichi altogether now that Sasuke Uchiha, the object of her affections, is deceased. But more than that, she may lose herself to revenge, just as the Uchiha did. Thanks to Hatake, most of the village truly believes that Naruto murdered his traitorous teammate in cold blood when I've a feeling that couldn't be farther from the truth. After all…" Glancing into Tsunade's eyes, the jonin commander grinned slightly, "I believe your orders were to bring him back by any means necessary, were they not? Naruto was acting well within the mission parameters when he took Sasuke's life. From what our scouts have reported regarding the sight at the Valley of the End, it appears that Sasuke resisted and Naruto was forced to fight. If I had to fathom a guess, then the Uchiha really didn't give young Uzumaki much of a choice **but** to kill him in order to prevent Orochimaru from obtaining him. If Naruto hadn't performed this action, Sasuke would have been lost to the village and one of our village's biggest traitors would have had a set of Sharingan practically delivered to him on a silver platter because of the boy's arrogance and lust for power."

Looking around himself to see that everyone was following his logic, the Nara head released a sigh and then a loud yawn before he continued on. "But I digress, that wasn't quite the topic of conversation that I was discussing before. My apologies." Hearing a few light chuckles, Shikaku shrugged and continued once more. "Regardless, the point stands that, because of the power the Civilian Council managed to take during that little time before the good man that was the Sandaime retook his position as Hokage, the standards at the Academy were lowered to suit their petty needs. After all, before the standards were to the point that their precious civilian-born children would naturally have a difficult time graduating and moving on to become Genin. Some of the classes these days…"

Once more, everyone shook their heads and hung them in defeat. The Civilians had made the ninja academy look like a damn joke! With a shrug of his shoulders, Shikaku chose to continue with his point. "Here is the point I'm trying to make. It's truly bothersome, but we need to shut down the academy for a time and change how things are run. We need to do a complete overhaul on the class lessons and determine what students _should_ be learning and what classes truly don't belong. It's then important to conduct a thorough examination on the teachers. But more than that, I suggest we look through records of how the students were graded, if there was any favoritism shown, and vice versa as well; we need to check to see if any students were singled out as 'problem students' and treated unfairly. If my suspicions are correct, there's a very likely possibility that grades were altered and certain students had it harder than others, while others that didn't truly deserve it were practically handed their top level grades without a problem. One such example I can think of would be Sasuke Uchiha. In all likelihood, there's a strong possibility that he was shown blatant favoritism by not only the people in the village, but by the teaching staff as well. After all, if I'm correct, then the elders, who sided with Danzo earlier, decided it was important to pamper the brat. Meanwhile, I suspect that Naruto Uzumaki was held back and treated unjustly in the academy simply for housing the Kyuubi."

Sighing heavily to himself, Shikaku shook his head and looked down at towards his feet. "The Kyuubi…Naruto's 'condition'…I suspect the elders had a hand in why the villagers all knew that Naruto was the new Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. I just wish we could _prove_ it and have them executed for their crimes. But, we don't really need more of a reason to do that now, do we?" Chuckling bitterly to himself, the Nara head raised his head and looked hard into Tsunade's eyes before looking around the room once more. "Thinking on it now, I'm starting to suspect that the harsh treatment Naruto suffered here in the village has played a part in why Naruto chose to leave the village as he did. Like Sasuke, we never performed a mental evaluation to determine if he was truly healthy not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. There's a good chance that, despite how he behaved that he was truly hurting inside and had become mentally unstable. Take his pranks for instance. To most, they would seem like a brat just out to make trouble for everyone. But for the more intelligent among us, it was an obvious cry for attention. I would also assume that the outfit he chose to wear was another attempt at grabbing attention that he likely _desperately_ craved. Sadly, the kind of attention he received remained only negative. With all of this in mind, I truly believe that Naruto's mental state might not be as sound as we had hoped."

Tsunade could only sigh sadly and nod her head as her gaze turned downwards. "You might be right Shikaku. I just wish I had paid more attention and done more for him. Naruto's the reason I'm even back in the village, and beyond that, I became _Hokage_ because of him. It feels…hollow…empty here without him. I'm worried for him. I'd be out there searching for him if not for my duties to the village right now. I just…want him to be okay. To know he's safe wherever he is."

The others could only watch as tears trailed down the Godaime's face and listened as she began to openly sob before them. It showed the kind of trust she had in them that she would let her barriers down and allow them to see this side of her. Sending her looks of understanding, as well as saddened smiles to show they felt her pain, Shikaku decided to voice another concern. "I'm sorry to do this now Hokage-sama, but while we're on the topic of a person's psyche, I believe there's an important issue we need to address."

Tsunade nodded slowly and raised her gaze to look at the scarred jonin commander once more. Without saying anything, she waited for the man to continue. Upon seeing her look, there were no words that needed to be said and so he continued. "After returning home and learning the news about what happened during the retrieval mission, those involved are deeply troubled. My son is blaming himself for how things turned out. Not only were a majority of the members of his team injured, some being nearly fatal, but he sent Naruto ahead to stop Sasuke. Upon learning that Naruto was forced to take Sasuke's life, but that his friend abandoned the village immediately afterwards…my son is troubled. I worry for his future as a shinobi. But it's not just Shikamaru that I am concerned for."

Frowning to himself, knowing his next request would be a heavy one to undertake, Shikaku turned his gaze to his friend Inoichi and began. "I would like to request that the Yamanaka clan help the medics evaluate the mental conditions of not only my son's team, but those of Naruto and Sasuke's graduating classmates as well as the members of Might Guy's team. Some of them might require counseling to overcome any problems that might be discovered in regards to their psyche and emotional states. Until they have all been evaluated, I recommend that their teams not be deployed on any missions. Even then, if the medics and Yamanaka clan haven't cleared them for duty, they should be put on an indefinite hold until such a time that they are deemed healthy enough to continue with their duties. Then…" Sighing to himself, Shikaku dragged a hand through his hair and grumbled. "This is so bothersome. But there are some that may need to be removed from the ninja corps. in its entirety. If I had to suggest one such person, I would suggest removing Sakura Haruno from the ranks of ninja and be returned to a civilian once more. With the death of Sasuke, her other teammate going missing, and Hatake's punishment…she'll be on her own without a team. It may prove to be far too much for her to cope with. But again, having both a medic and a Yamanaka clan member look her over would probably be for the best."

Tsunade sighed, but nodded her head in agreement as she worked her best to wipe away the tear tracks on her face. "It's a sound idea, and I can understand where you're coming from in regards to the mental state of those Genin and Chunin Shikamaru. I agree with your idea. Do you have anything to add Inoichi, or are you prepared to assist in this matter as Shikaku has requested?"

The blond-haired man sighed sadly to himself and nodded his head slowly. "I agree to do this. I just…worry that my daughter will be one of those removed from the ninja program. If our suspicions are correct about her, there's a good chance that she's already too far gone to truly repair what damage has been done. I fear that because she was such a fan girl to the Uchiha," at this point he and the others shuddered and felt sympathy for the poor man, "and her feelings regarding Naruto that it didn't take much to manipulate her mind into believing whatever Hatake was saying. Now with Danzo and the elders, there's a chance that they could further corrupt the people of the village, including those manipulated into believing Kakashi's crap. But I'm getting off track. Ino truly believed Kakashi's words and nothing her mother or I have said has gotten through to her that Naruto is _not_ the kind of person who would murder Sasuke out of jealousy. My biggest fear at this point isn't whether or not she'll be able to continue on as a kunoichi, but whether or not we'll have to seal off her chakra to keep her from turning down the same path the Uchiha took. Sasuke's quest for vengeance only led him to destruction in the end. He brought it upon himself, and I don't want the same to happen to my daughter should she try to hunt down Naruto."

With another heavy sigh, Inoichi Yamanaka looked at his hands and could feel tears of regret and true sadness stinging at the corners of his eyes. "I'll gladly help with Shikaku's idea, but I fear I may not be able to save my little girl from a terrible fate. I…I had such high hopes for her. I truly did. But now? I don't know what to expect. She won't even listen to her parents anymore! I've tried to be a good father, but I can't help but feel I've failed in that aspect. I can honestly say that I'm disappointed in Ino. She had the potential to be a great kunoichi, but…I just don't know anymore."

Seeing and hearing his close friend in such a state, Chouza Akimichi rose from his chair and walked over to his friend. Without warning, he pulled the man into a hug and patted his back. "You're a good father Inoichi. We all try to do our very best when it comes to raising our children. But from what I've come to understand, there are oftentimes outside influences that are impossible to predict that can cause things beyond our control. The obsession your daughter developed with Sasuke Uchiha is one of those things that was simply beyond your control, my friend. Then we have to think about Hatake's actions and words upon returning with the Uchiha's body. Heck, even before that, we never could have foreseen that Naruto would kill Sasuke at the Valley of the End! There were so many unknowns and circumstances beyond our control that you really can't blame yourself Inoichi. So please, as your friend and brother, don't beat yourself up over this. You're a great father."

Tsume chose to speak up at this point, just as concerned for the blond father as the others. "I have to agree with Chouza-san. I've seen you with your daughter before and I must say, you're a great father. It's a shame that Ino hasn't heeded your advice. It's even more of a shame that she's choosing to completely shut you and your wife out now, after the death of her 'beloved Uchiha'. But it's been said already, you did nothing wrong. You've done exactly as a father should. You tried to steer your daughter in the right direction, you showed her the love and affection a parent should have for their child, scolded her when she did something wrong, and I could honestly go on and on here. The point is this: Chouza-san's right. Don't go beating yourself up over this because it's NOT your fault. Do you understand?"

Inoichi found himself chuckling quietly as he listened to his friends. With both a shrug and a nod of his head, the Yamanaka clan head raised his gaze to meet with those of his friends and smiled slightly. "I understand Tsume-san. Thank you both for your support and kind words. It…helps. I'll continue to hold out hope for my little girl, but if she's too far gone, I'll do what must be done and seal off her chakra. She may not like it, and may even resent me for it for denying her the revenge she'll possibly seek, but I'll do it to keep her safe. After all, the world out there can be a cruel and unforgiving place."

Tsunade nodded in the affirmative to that statement before she made her voice heard. "I'm glad to hear that we have the support of you and your clan Inoichi. I'm also glad to know that there is no opposition in regards what to do about jonin Kakashi Hatake. But there are a few more things we need to discuss and come to an agreement on. The first of which is Naruto Uzumaki. We mentioned it earlier on in the meeting, but how will we go about informing the other villages to help us protect him? Any suggestions?"

At this, Hiashi decided to speak up and voice both an opinion on the matter and a possible idea as well. "There are a few things to take into consideration when discussing this topic first and foremost." Seeing he had everyone's attention, the Hyuga clan head cleared his throat and made his point known. "Due to certain connections Naruto has made while in the service of the village, he has gained particular sway in certain political matters regarding a few of our new connections. The first would be the country of Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves). According to what we have learned, they chose to name the great bridge after him. His previous client's family is particularly fond of the boy. But enough about that."

With a heavy sigh, Hiashi continued as he looked down at his folded hands that lay upon the table before him. "Then we must take into consideration the recently named Haru no Kuni (Land of Spring) and Naruto's connection to their newly instated daimyo, Koyuki Kazehana. She feels a great debt to Naruto Uzumaki."

Frowning at this point, Hiashi looked into the eyes of his peers. "Finally, Naruto connected on a personal level with the Jinchuriki of Sunagakure, the Yondaime Kazekage's very own son, Gaara. The worst has already happened in regards to the Suna siblings though. After learning of Naruto's disappearance and the events that followed it here in the village…I fear our alliance with Suna will be on thin ice, so to speak. In the worst case scenario, the alliance will be broken off and Sunagakure would seek to form alliances elsewhere. Again, this is a worst case scenario, but it's something we should be prepared for."

With a shrug of his shoulders this time, the Hyuga head continued on once more. "But Sunagakure aside, if either of the nations mentioned moments ago learn of what has transpired regarding Naruto Uzumaki, and more importantly how he was not only treated here in the village, but how the majority of the village is reacting to the recent events…I fear the repercussions could be severe. Again, alliances formed will likely be broken off. Naruto was the main reason these bonds were formed, and without the Uzumaki's presence here in Konohagakure and with how the people are acting? Well…to put it bluntly, we're in trouble."

Laughing bitterly to himself, Hiashi shook his head and decided to get to the point he was trying to make. "The first thing we should do is see if we can keep this news from reaching those two nations. It may seem underhanded, but if we're thinking in terms of what's best for the village, keeping our alliances intact with those two nations would be in our best interests. But more than that, I'd like to hold out hope that Naruto may one day return to us and all of this can be fixed." Frowning to himself at that, the Hyuga glanced down at his hands and shook his head. "My point stands though. It's in our best interest to find some way to keep those two nations in particular from finding out what has happened."

Seeing everyone reluctantly nod in agreement with his assessment, Hiashi continued on. "Now, as for what to do in regards to keeping young Naruto safe from harm. There's a very likely chance that Akatsuki will find out if we aren't careful. Our best bet is to request that the other Kages meet with us in a secure location. One that we're sure is safe from prying eyes and ears. The most we should tell them is that it's urgent and hope they show up at the designated meeting place. If I'm correct, the Raikage and Tsuchikage would likely be curious enough about why Konoha is contacting them and requesting an urgent meeting. From what we understand about the situation in Kirigakure, the civil war has ended with the bloodliners winning. Their new Mizukage is most likely looking to make allies now to strengthen their village once more, so she is likely to make an appearance as well. It's Suna that we have to be the most concerned about in my opinion. The reason for this is quite simple: in due time I believe that Gaara will be made Kazekage of the village. Call it a gut feeling if you will, but I have a feeling Naruto's influence will play a part in that decision. In the meantime, Gaara is likely to be accompanied by someone who is likely working in the role of temporary Kazekage until a permanent one has been appointed. In this case, Gaara is likely being groomed for the role if I had to fathom a guess."

Frowning more at this point, Hiashi lowered his gaze once more. "In the meeting being requested, I think it would come down to what Suna's representatives choose to do. It could easily go one of two ways as far as I see it. The first is that they will listen as we explain the situation and may even offer to help keep an eye out for Naruto Uzumaki and offer to keep him safe. It is highly unlikely that they will offer to return him to us after witnessing what Gaara and his siblings did here in the village."

Shaking his head, the Hyuga head continued with a defeated tone in his voice at this point. "The second possibility is one that would doom our chances at earning help from the other villages most likely. The representatives from Suna could inform the other Kage about Naruto's 'condition', his treatment here in the village, reactions after killing Sasuke and disappearing, etc. This outcome would likely garner Suna the support of the other villages except for Iwagakure. From what we know, the current Raikage is fond of both of Kumo's Jinchuriki and treats them with not only respect, but with compassion as well. Kumo's Jinchuriki are far better off in terms of treatment than other villages. Hearing about Naruto's treatment would likely earn Naruto the support of Kumogakure and the Raikage's protection. Not to mention that there would be a great chance that, should Naruto be granted asylum in Kumo…we'll never get him back."

Sighing again, Hiashi looked around at the others and continued speaking. "Then there's the new Mizukage and Kirigakure to think about. After the discrimination and the previous Mizukage's actions regarding bloodline holders…she is quite likely to sympathize with young Naruto Uzumaki. If I was a betting man, I'd say that it's highly likely she would also try to protect Naruto and keep him from our village to the best of her ability."

Chuckling darkly at this point, Hiashi then went on to speak about the Tsuchikage. "Then there's Onoki, the current Tsuchikage. The Jinchuriki of Iwa are not treated well, not even by him. But if he learns about Naruto and what he is, there's a very likely possibility that he'll try to claim Naruto for his village even though it could quite possibly cause conflict between our villages. Naruto would not likely be treated with any respect in Iwagakure either, so it would be like trading one abusive home for another if that were to happen."

Tsunade and the others frowned at this point, hoping that Onoki would never get his hands on Konoha's Jinchuriki. Glancing around at the various members of the Shinobi Council, she couldn't help but sigh heavily. "The idea is a risky one. I'm not sure if the risks are worth it, despite what we could gain from this idea. Does anyone have any better ideas, or is this the best idea we can come up with? No offense to you Hiashi, but it's a dangerous plan and I'm sure you must agree with me on that."

Hiashi nodded and simply shrugged his shoulders in response before everyone heard Shibi Aburame speak up. "This is a simple idea that shares the same concept as Hiashi's idea, but it seems like the most logical choice that comes to mind right now." Glancing around at his peers to ensure he had their attention, the father of Shino Aburame and Aburame clan head proceeded to explain his idea. "I suggest we send out messages via our fastest messenger birds to Sunagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure. The Tsuchikage simply cannot be trusted in regards to Naruto-san. Why? Because of the very reasons Hiashi-san explained mere moments ago. The risk is too high that he would find out what Naruto holds and then capture him before ensuring his loyalty to Iwagakure through certain means. It is a risk that we cannot take."

Seeing everyone nod in agreement, Shibi adjusted his sunglasses and proceeded to continue with his explanation. "Now, each message should mention specific things in order to ensure Naruto's protection without giving too much away to Kirigakure or Kumogakure. The message to Sunagakure should simply contain a heartfelt apology for the way the village reacted and including a request to please look out for Naruto should they come across him during his travels."

Once everyone nodded in agreement with that, he continued. "For Kumogakure, it is logical to request that they be on the lookout for Naruto Uzumaki. We appeal to the Raikage in the message and explain how he is the son of not only Kushina Uzumaki, a woman the people of Kumo tried to take in the past, but the Yondaime Hokage, Minato, as well. The current Raikage held a great amount of respect for Minato-sama and would most certainly look out for Naruto should he or his ninja come across him. But along with this explanation, we should inform the Raikage about why Naruto was forced to leave Konohagakure. A logical example of what I mean by this can go by the following lines: 'After killing the last Uchiha in the village, the majority of the villagers reacted in a negative fashion. As a direct result of this, the situation for him worsened and he was forced to leave Konoha for his own safety.' It is not the whole truth, and we keep the information about Naruto being the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi a secret, but we also manage to convince the Raikage to keep Naruto safe until such a time that he can return to the village and feel safe here once again."

"Finally, in regards to the Mizukage, we appeal to her sense of familiarity with Naruto's situation. She and her people have just recently wrested control of Kirigakure and Mizu no Kuni (Land of Water) from a tyrant that ostracized at least half of the people of that nation simply for being different. We explain to this woman that Naruto has been treated as an outcast for being different here, just as her people were in their civil war for some time. This will help her feel a sense of kinship with the young Uzumaki boy and convince her to help Naruto should see and her people see him. We should also ask her and the Raikage to please inform us should they convince him to take temporary refuge in their respective villages. This way we know where he is, that he's safe, and we can eventually 'collect' him as it were when it's finally safe to do so."

After Shibi had finished speaking his idea, Inoichi spoke up again. "I see what you're talking about Shibi-san. In essence, we'd be manipulating all three of them into protecting Naruto for us while also hiding his status as a Jinchuriki. We give them just enough information to develop an interest in the boy and convince them to hold onto him for us until such a time as we can safely take care of him once more. It helps that the possibility of them discovering Naruto's identity as the Kyuubi Jinchuriki is slim. Naruto's a smart kid and he'll know not to reveal such information. After all, he's kept it secret all this time and none of the children of his generation or younger know what he holds. None of his enemies from past missions have either from what we've gathered from the reports. So as long as he doesn't say anything and Suna remains quiet in regards to his status, he should remain relatively safe, all things considered."

Shibi nodded his head calmly and smiled slightly. "Precisely. I would rather we not manipulate potential future allies, but in this case it is our best, and most logical, option. It would also be most prudent of us to send these messages out as quickly as possible before Danzo and the other elders can cause our efforts to be completely wasted. In this case, the one that acts first will have a distinct advantage over the other."

Tsunade nodded grimly at that and ordered another ANBU to quickly bring her three message scrolls and the necessary tools to write her messages with. While the ANBU left to fulfill her requests, the Godaime turned to the Shinobi Council once more and let a grim frown cross her beautiful facial features. "Speaking of Danzo…it's time we discuss what needs to be done regarding that monster. I'm afraid that this particular problem is far more urgent than the situation with Naruto currently. Now, let's begin…"

 _ **Noon – Oto no Kuni (Land of Sound)**_

Naruto stood on a rather large hill, looking out at the area before him. Part of this young man was feeling ecstatic at being free to roam as he now was, while another part felt apprehension about being in the territory that he _knew_ belonged to a certain Snake Sannin. There was absolutely no doubt in Naruto's mind that Orochimaru would be out for his blood now that he not only killed Sasuke, but took his Sharingan as well. But, despite people's judgment regarding Naruto, he was most certainly _not_ an idiot.

Before entering Oto no Kuni, he had first considered visiting Nami no Kuni to talk to Tazuna and his family about what had transpired and to explain the situation regarding his standing in the village even further. However, while this would help deal a blow to Konohagakure's economy, there was also the fact that Nami no Kuni was no doubt amongst those places located at the top of the list of places Naruto was most likely to visit now that he's left the village. So, knowing this, Naruto thought about the places that they would assume Naruto would _never_ go. That is when it came to him: Oto no Kuni! The perfect place to not only escape Konoha, but hide himself from Orochimaru and Akatsuki as well! After all, one would naturally think it's suicide to enter Orochimaru's territory at this point in time due to what Naruto had just done. It's also something nobody would ever expect the dobe of his graduating class of genin to _ever_ think to do.

So, with these thoughts in mind, Naruto ventured across the border into the lands of Oto no Kuni and found himself standing upon this hill overlooking the fields below him and the people wandering about, tending to a variety of things that required their attention. After all, before Orochimaru conquered this land, it was known as Ta no Kuni (Land of Rice Paddies). Looking below once more, Naruto figured that it was easy to see why it was called as such with all the rice fields scattered about.

With a shrug to shake off those thoughts, Naruto folded his arms and began walking towards the closest group of people he could see. What better way to get information than by simply mingling and enjoying a bit of small talk with the natives after all? As he proceeded towards his chosen targets, Naruto thought back to something else that happened just recently and let a small smirk play across his lips.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _It was late at night and Naruto had chosen to make camp in a secluded section of the forest he found himself in. He had made sure to do whatever he could to keep himself from being located before he settled down for the night. So, after eating a hastily made dinner courtesy of some poor squirrels he managed to kill, the blond ninja closed his eyes and decided it was a good time to visit his mindscape to speak with a certain prisoner._

 _ **Mindscape**_

 _Without wasting any time, Naruto made his way towards the room that contained the Kyuubi's cage. Upon reaching the cage, Konoha's newest runaway looked straight into the massive beast's eyes and let a small smirk play at his lips. "Hello again Kyuubi. How are you feeling?"_

 _The Kyuubi glanced down at the boy with an inquisitive stare, feeling quite curious about the boy at this moment. Lowering its head to be at eye level with the blond shinobi, it huffed and began to speak. "I'm not sure why you're suddenly trying to be friendly with me brat, but it doesn't matter. I'm doing as well as can be expected considering I'm trapped in a cage and my jailor's an idiot of the highest caliber."_

 _Chuckling to himself, Naruto nodded his head at that and walked forwards and into the cage. Once next to the beast, the smirking Uzumaki placed his hand upon Kyuubi's snout and began to pet its fur there. "I'm sad to say it, but I actually agree with you. But tell me, exactly whose fault do you think that is?"_

 _Kyuubi snorted and glanced into his midget jailor's eyes. "You'd better not be implying it's me you little brat. If you are I'll destroy you here and now."_

 _Sighing to himself, Naruto lightly chopped his hand down on Kyuubi's nose. "No. Bad Kyuubi, assuming I'm judging you. Bad." Chopping the Kyuubi's nose again, Naruto chuckled quietly to himself and decided to explain. "Almost nobody back in the village would teach me anything. Remember? I_ know _you can see into my memories, so if you need a reminder, go ahead and take a look. But that's not important right now. What_ is _important is the fact that I was deprived of a proper education back in the village thanks to those stuck-up bastards that can't tell a scroll from the kunai sealed within."_

 _With another sigh, Naruto shook his head and gently patted the Kyuubi's snout again. "Again, I'm not blaming you big guy. You're not the cause of my suffering. The villagers were responsible for what they did. Nobody_ made _them do it, they_ chose _to do it. But again, I'm getting off topic here. My point is, because of their crap and my idiocy in seeking attention rather than paying attention when the_ _ **one**_ _teacher that actually gave a damn about me tried to help me, I lack certain essentials to survive out here. Do you understand what I'm saying here?"_

 _Kyuubi couldn't help but grumble to himself and let his ears flop downwards. "Great. Because I'm stuck inside of you and your only constant in this world, you want me to help set you on the right path, do I have that right?" When his container only nodded with a big grin on his face, the Kyuubi grumbled more. "Damn it brat, why couldn't you just continue being an idiot? It was just plain easier that way!"_

 _Naruto found himself chuckling and shook his head at the Kyuubi's antics. "'fraid not Kyuubi. Besides, would you really like your container to continue being a weak idiot?" Seeing and hearing the Kyuubi huff in annoyance only proved Naruto's point. "Good to see we're on the same page here. I need you to do what you can for me. Teach me what you know about the world both current and in history. Likewise, I need you to teach me the crap they teach in school about mathematics and that other junk I couldn't have cared less about when actually attending the academy simply because nobody would fucking help me."_

 _Grumbling to himself, the young blond shook his head and chose to continue on in a calmer tone. "Other than that basic crap, I need help correcting my flaws as a damn ninja. As I am right now, I'm pathetic. Yes, I'll admit that. Sure, I can spam the ever loving hell out of the_ _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)_ _and I can use the_ _Rasengan_ _, but other than that? I've got the basic academy ninjutsu down pat, other than the regular_ _Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)_ _of course, for rather_ obvious _reasons. I also have the_ _Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique)_ _and the Kage Bunshin variation, the Hāremu no Jutsu (Harem Technique) that I created. They don't have much practical use, but they work for fooling perverts I suppose." Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto decided to finish his list. "Finally, I can utilize the __Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)_ _to summon toads, but in the end, that's pretty much it for me in terms of ninjutsu."_

 _Frowning at this point, Naruto decided it was time to explain everything he could think of that was just wrong about his 'style' as a ninja. "I have no true Taijutsu style. At this point, I pretty much throw a fist and hope to Kami it hits. Most of my fights I've won thanks to either being faster, stronger, etc. than my opponents or simply spamming the crap out of my Kage Bunshin to overwhelm the bastards. Or…I've tapped into your chakra to aid me. As of this point, that's more of a crutch for me than anything, and I can't continue on like this."_

 _"Next is my utter lack of Ninjutsu. I have the potential to be a ninjutsu nightmare for my enemies, but nobody would ever teach me any jutsu to use! Jiraiya was the only one besides Iruka and a few others that seemed to give a shit about me enough to teach me anything, and even then he was such a major pervert that he focused more of his time on his 'extracurricular activities' than on training me as he was_ _ **supposed to**_ _!" Taking a deep breath to try and calm himself once more, the young man continued on, knowing that he had the Kyuubi's full attention and had had it for some time now. "The point is that I need you to help teach me whatever ninjutsu you can. You've been around for a lot longer than I have, no offense intended here, so you_ must _have knowledge you can give me regarding a wide variety of jutsu and things!"_

 _Releasing another heavy sigh, Naruto continued on with one of his least favorite types of jutsu: Genjutsu. "Finally, there's Genjutsu. I at_ least _need to know how the hell to break out of a genjutsu. I_ know _you can help me with that. But I'd also like to see if you can help me actually utilize some genjutsu. I'm sure if we put our minds together, we can come up with some pretty wicked genjutsu, don't you think Kyuubi?"_

 _Sighing to himself, Kyuubi rose onto its feet and then began to change forms. The large creature shrank down and continued to shrink until it took a humanoid form just a foot and a half taller than Naruto was. When the Kyuubi had finished transforming, it became quite obvious that 'he' was actually a 'she'._

 _Kyuubi was a beautiful woman that looked to be in her late teens to early twenties. The woman had the same crimson, slit-pupil eyes that were also somehow enchanting and beautiful whereas before they could instill fear into even the bravest of ninja. This female Kyuubi also had long, flowing red hair that reached down to her ankles. As he gazed at this hair, Naruto found himself wondering if it felt as soft and silky as it looked. Turning his gaze from her hair, he took in her other facial features and the rest of her body. It was a good thing that she was clad in a flowing black and red kimono, or his eyes would have ended up roaming over her naked, well-endowed and well-proportioned body. Yes, she was a beautiful woman and Naruto would not be afraid to admit that. In fact, if he was somebody like Jiraiya, he would likely be entranced by not only her beauty, but her bountiful DD-cup breasts and long, luscious legs. Needless to say…perverts would be trounced by the vixen standing before young Naruto Uzumaki._

 _Running a hand through her hair, brushing some bangs out of her face in the process, Kyuubi stared calmly down into her container's eyes and let the smallest of smiles grace her features. "If I'm to train you, it would be best if I took on this form, would it not?" Seeing Naruto nod dumbly in response, Kyuubi walked over and poked his forehead. "I'm going to do my very best to make sure you become a ninja worthy of calling yourself my container. But first, I would appreciate it if you called me by name. I don't want to be referred to as Kyuubi all the time. You may call me Kiyoko. It's a pleasure to officially meet you Naruto. Let us hope that we can get along properly from now on."_

 _ **End Flashback**_

After agreeing to train him, Kiyoko had proceeded to explain to him that she would do her best to feed him all the knowledge she could directly into his mind at a steady pace so as not to overexert his brain's processing capabilities. She had explained that this would likely take some time, most likely up to a month or a little longer, for her to finish with this process. Kiyoko also explained that while she was getting him caught up to speed on a grand number of things he needed to know and understand, she would focus on teaching him a taijutsu style that seemed just perfect for him.

Rather than try and teach him a reactionary style, Kiyoko had explained that she would teach him a style that relied on high speed movement, dodging opponent's strikes, and landing crippling blows that would hinder an enemy's movement and allow for finishing strikes to be landed easier on his enemies. She had referred to this style as the Yoko Genkotsu (Demon Fox Fist). Once he became proficient in using her chakra cloak without having issues, he would be able to utilize the true potential of this particular taijutsu style.

Along with this powerful taijutsu style, he was also going to learn a variety of elemental ninjutsu, starting with fire and wind, his natural elements apparently. Once he was proficient in those, he would branch out into other elemental jutsu. Other than those, Kiyoko had plans to teach him other kinds of jutsu as well, but she wouldn't explain just what they were to him yet.

As for genjutsu, Kiyoko was thinking on a way that she could not only make Naruto **immune** to genjutsu, but also allow him to use the strongest genjutsu she could teach him. It would take a bit more effort on her part, but they both agreed that it would be more than worth it. For now, she would teach him how to break free from genjutsu while agreeing to help him escape those he may not be able to on his own power.

Kiyoko also promised to teach him about fuinjutsu after explaining to Naruto about his clan and their specialty in that particular field of jutsu. Naturally, due to Naruto's childlike exuberance, he was excited at the prospect of learning something that would connect him to his long deceased clan.

Finally, at Kiyoko's insistence, Naruto would be taught how to wield multiple types of weapons. This way he would be well-versed in many styles of combat and would be given a distinct advantage over his opponents, _especially_ if they focused primarily on one or two areas. The question they needed to work out is: where the hell does he get the weapons he needs to begin that training?!

Luckily, most of this knowledge could be transferred directly into his mind, but he would need to train hard in the physical realm in order to get the hang of using everything he learned in the right way. Thankfully for Naruto, Kiyoko had also explained about how he could truly use his Kage Bunshin to their greatest effect. So with the knowledge of how to train with Kage Bunshin in mind, Naruto knew that would make things so much easier than they would have been without his precious friends. Though, thinking on it, Naruto wondered if he could even call his Kage Bunshin friends, considering they came from him.

Shaking his head to rid himself of those thoughts, Naruto walked up to a rather large, rotund woman that kind of stood out in the group he was walking towards. With a tap on her arm to get her attention, the blond shinobi proceeded to ask her for information. "Excuse me Miss, but could you lend me a moment of your time?" Seeing her nod in assent, Naruto proceeded to ask his question. "I'm new to this area and I was wondering if you could tell me anything interesting going on in the area? Also, if you have one, could I perhaps borrow a map? I'm afraid I don't know my way around this land very well yet."

The woman smiled and nodded in response before reaching into the sack strapped to her waist. Withdrawing a map from it, she handed it to the boy and began to explain what she knew. "Well, my family and I have lived in this land since before it came to be known as Oto. If you're looking for Otogakure, I'd recommend staying away. I don't trust that man, Orochimaru. You look like a good kid, so steer clear of this area." Looking at the map in Naruto's hands, the woman pointed her finger at the map and circled an area to show him the general area to avoid. "I'm not sure of the exact location of this supposed village of his, but we've seen people with those hitai-ate in that area before, so Otogakure's probably somewhere around there."

Naruto nodded at this and made a mental note to at least explore the general area later just in case he felt like screwing with Orochimaru even more than he already had. _Heh, I could have so much fun making that bastard suffer. Orochimaru, meet the Prankster King from Hell, he's going to make your life absolutely miserable._ Naruto would have likely continued on with this line of thought if not for Kiyoko prompting him from within his mind to pay attention to the woman again and listen to what she had to say next.

Once she was sure she had the boy's attention again, the woman decided to continue. "The rest of Oto no Kuni is open for exploration. There are occasional patrols, but considering what we've heard recently, that's not all that surprising. Various clans with no place to go have been invited to Otogakure, but we're not sure what for. I'm not sure what your business here is, but I'd steer clear from that business if I were you. It's not worth risking your safety, and even your life, over. Doesn't matter to me whether you're a ninja or not, getting involved with those Oto ninja is anything _but_ good."

Quirking an inquisitive eyebrow at this woman, Naruto simply shrugged it off and looked back down at the map. After a moment of looking at the various landmarks on the map and the possible location of Orochimaru's 'hidden village', the boy began to speak. "Thank you Miss. I appreciate your help. But may I ask a favor?" Looking up into the woman's eyes, Naruto held up the map and gave her an apologetic smile. "Could I perhaps take this? I've got some business to attend to here in Oto no Kuni and this map could most certainly help me to know where I'm going. Pretty please?"

Inside his mind, Kiyoko was laughing to herself at her container. _**"Naruto, you're trying**_ **waaay** _ **too hard to be polite to this woman. It's laughable to think you could actually pull something like this off. Good effort though, you might almost come off as sincere if you were to try this with a ninja."**_

Sighing inwardly, Naruto just told her to shut up for the time being as the woman agreed, saying her family has more tucked away somewhere. The blond ninja didn't really care, so long as he got to keep the map and move on to investigate the goings-on in the country he was fine. So, thanking the woman one last time, Naruto gave her a friendly wave good-bye and set off to see if he could find one of these clans the woman mentioned. _Let's see how I can screw up Orochimaru's plans this time. This is going to be_ fun _._

 **A/N: Okey dokey. Here's the first chapter of A World Changing Epiphany (WCE for short). I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you are looking forward to seeing what comes next.**

 **I know the situation with Danzo will most likely have some curious, but I implore you to simply wait and read what happens in the coming chapters because more will be explained. He was rather cryptic and threatening in this chapter after all. It's obvious that he's up to something, but we'll have to wait and see now, won't we? *nods***

 **Yes, there's a Fem. Kyuubi in this one. But for those of you curious about a pairing...there really isn't one right now. I have plans for this fic, but I haven't been able to decide on any particular girl, or, as is the usual case with my fics, _girls_. I think this fic has potential for a harem of filler and movie girls, and perhaps other female Naruto characters that aren't often used from what I've noticed. If I choose to follow that route, I think there's really a lot of potential and it would certainly make things in this fic rather interesting. I just hope that it goes over well with you, the readers/fans. *shrugs* But yes, the Fem. Kyuubi is a potential mate in case you were wondering. I also gave her a different name in this fic compared to the name I gave her in Wrath of a Namikaze. I hope that Kiyoko will be to your liking, because she's likely to play a vital role in Naruto's life in this fic.**

 **If you're wondering about the Sharingan that Naruto took, I'm not going to spoil anything. Again, it's one of those things I have planned for, so don't ask okay?**

 **Finally, if you have any questions or concerns, go ahead and leave a review or send me a PM and I'll do the best I can to answer any questions/concerns you may have.**

 **Anyways, up next is chapter 2 of this story. My thumb is killing me, but I'm going to continue doing the best I can to crank out these chapters for ya. It's the least I can do after keeping you all waiting so darn long.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Adventure in Oto no Kuni**

It didn't take more than a few hours for Naruto to come across an odd sight. A young, masked individual was under attack from a group of three ninja wearing Oto attire and hitai-ates. Now, Naruto wasn't exactly sure just _why_ these Oto nin were attacking a masked child that appeared to be around his age, but he did know that it wasn't exactly a fair fight. On top of that, these were Oto ninja. If anything, kicking their asses and even killing the sons-of-bitches would bring a smile to his face. After all, depriving Orochimaru of not only Sasuke and the Sharingan, but removing some of his ninja as well? Well, that's just a winning combination right there!

Looking through his mind and the information that Kiyoko had been gradually feeding his brain ever since she began her process, the blond shinobi began thinking about what kind of jutsu would best fit this particular situation. As he saw the group of Oto shinobi approaching the frightened teenager, Naruto sighed and settled on a decent B-ranked wind jutsu. _If this doesn't work out the right way, I'll just go with the usual. Spam the hell out of Kage Bunshin and pummel the bastards until I can finish them off. Or…something. I'll think of something._

Using the stealth skills he had developed with his pranking habit back in Konoha, Naruto snuck up behind the group of shinobi and flashed through hand seals as quickly as possible. Upon finishing the hand seals, Naruto inhaled quietly, but quickly, and shouted out within his mind the name of his jutsu before firing off condensed bullets of air straight at his three enemies. _**Fūton: Shinkūgyoku (Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere)!**_

Sadly, because he hadn't had the time to practice said move, it didn't quite turn out the way he had expected. Instead of small blasts of air, his jutsu had so much chakra pumped into it that it made the jutsu exponentially more powerful but at a higher chakra cost. So, where the jutsu was simply aimed to debilitate his opponents and leave them open for interrogation afterwards, this more powerful version ended up tearing the Oto ninja to shreds, leaving them as nothing but piles of flesh and bones on the ground.

Sweat dropping at what happened the blond ninja rubbed the back of his head nervously, looked at the masked person he had just saved, and muttered a single word. "Whoops." With a shrug of his shoulders, Naruto walked around the piles of flesh and approached the masked teenager. Upon reaching what he assumed to be a male, the ex-Konoha shinobi knelt down and smiled at the person. "So, are you okay?"

Before he could say anything more, Kiyoko spoke to him within his mind. _**"Naruto, before you make a fool of yourself, I need to tell you something. This masked child isn't a male. It's a female and you'd best be careful how you address her. I can promise you that women do**_ **not** _ **appreciate being mistaken as males."**_

Sweat dropping again, Naruto simply chuckled nervously and helped the orange-haired, mask wearing individual to her feet and smiled as he asked the stunned girl once again. "I don't know who you are, or why they were attacking you, but are you okay? I'm sorry if I scared you, and I apologize for this, erm… _gruesome_ sight. I needed to do something though. I couldn't just stand back and let them hurt you. Though now my throat feels kind of funny and I think I'm feeling just a tad woozy."

 _ **"That's because not only did you overpower your jutsu, but you aren't used to utilizing Futon jutsu yet. As a direct result of this, your use of the jutsu damaged your body. You're lucky I'm here, or else it would probably be much worse. As for feeling woozy, that's just a side effect of using so much chakra for one jutsu. You really need more chakra control lessons."**_ Kiyoko explained, much to Naruto's ire.

While Naruto seemed to be having some kind of internal debate with himself, the masked girl looked at the boy that saved her with both apprehension and thankfulness expressed in her eyes. After deciding that she could probably trust this odd individual before her, the young lass removed her mask and changed it into the position of a hat. Bowing politely to her savior, the young woman introduced herself. "My name is Sasame of the Fuma clan. Thank you for coming to my aid. I'm not sure what I would have done if you hadn't come to my rescue."

The Uzumaki male glanced into the young woman's eyes and flashed her a dazzling smile. "I'm just glad I got here in time to help you. I don't much care for Oto ninja after everything that happened before, so taking care of them was really just a bonus for saving you Sasame-chan. Though, I do have some questions for you if you don't mind?" Seemingly remembering something, Naruto grinned brighter and nodded his head. "By the way, the name's Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meetcha!"

Sasame blushed a bit from being called with the –chan suffix by this strange boy in front of her. Still, she nodded her head and decided to respond to his question. "If I can be of any help, I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have Naruto-san." Seeing a sour look suddenly appear on Naruto's face caused Sasame to frown and tilt her head to the side in confusion. "What's wrong?"

The blue-eyed ninja sighed quietly to himself and offered Sasame a small smile. "Nothing. I just don't care much for those honorifics. I'd much rather you refer to me by just my name or even just Naruto-kun or something. Calling me Naruto-san just doesn't feel right to me. Then again, I'm the kinda guy that likes to call people pretty much whatever, sooo…I guess I really don't have any room to talk, now do I?"

As Naruto chuckled to himself, Sasame couldn't help but giggle along with him. She couldn't help it. This young man before her came along, made short work of those jerk Oto ninja that attacked her, and now, here he was, acting like a bit of a goofball. Despite herself, Sasame Fuma just couldn't help but enjoy this moment. Naruto made surprisingly good company, considering the way in which he killed those ninja mere moments before.

After they had both settled down, Naruto smiled along with Sasame and shook her hand. "Again, it's nice to meet you Sasame-chan. Now, as for those questions I had. My first question is this: why were these scumbags attacking you?"

At this, the orange-haired girl sighed and rubbed her left arm for a moment. "My clan was invited to come here by Orochimaru of the Sannin. He promised that if we joined him that he could help my clan reclaim our former glory. There were some of us that were suspicious of his offer however. Me being one of them, as you have no doubt guessed." With another sigh, the brown-eyed girl looked into her new friend's eyes and continued her tale. "Those of us that had our suspicions were treated almost like we were betraying the clan. They were so desperate to fix our situation that they didn't care about the possibility that it could be a trap! Stupid, stupid fools!"

Frowning to himself, Naruto took a few steps closer and wrapped his arms around Sasame, pulling her into a warm embrace. "If it helps any, I knew somebody that was like that. It's…not exactly the same situation, but his entire clan was killed off by his brother. Since that day, this guy…all he could think about was revenge and restoring his clan to its former glory. Personally, I think the guy should have prioritized certain things first. But to him, his main goal was revenge. In the end, before he could do anything about his situation or follow through with any of his goals…I had to take his life. This happened just yesterday in fact."

Sighing deeply, Naruto looked off to the side and tried to figure out how to phrase this next bit of what he wanted to say. After a brief pause, he continued. "For a long time, I thought that we could be friends. I was always alone. I didn't know my parents, and I don't know if they even wanted me. The people in our village wanted nothing to do with me, and those that had children made sure to keep them as far away from me as possible. I won't…go into too much detail, but let's just say I lived a lonely, lonely life."

Sasame was looking into Naruto's eyes at this point, her arms slowly wrapping around him as she hugged him back. She could tell that this topic was bringing up bad memories for him, and yet she found that she couldn't say anything. All the young woman could do was listen in rapt attention, curious to see where he was going with this tale. When he looked into her eyes and began speaking again, she found herself hanging onto every word, wanting to hear what came next.

"I thought that this guy felt the same loneliness I felt after his whole family died at the hands of his brother. Finally, I thought, finally I could relate to somebody and we could be the best of friends. It wasn't to be though." Releasing a heavy sigh, Naruto closed his eyes and let the memories wash over him as he continued to speak to his new friend. "This guy had everything I wanted. Recognition, people actually _wanted_ to talk to him and be his friend, he had girls throwing themselves at him, he had talent, he had _everything_. But that's not what really bothered me about him. This stupid guy didn't appreciate **any** of it. For someone like me, who had **nothing** , to see someone who had everything practically handed to him refusing to acknowledge or even appreciate any of it? That pissed me off. It bugged me so damn much."

The orange-haired young lass found herself frowning at this and hugging the boy in front of her just a bit tighter as she listened to his tale. She found that she really felt for the poor guy and really didn't like where this tale was heading. Especially if the ending was as he said it was. But, Sasame still listened on, knowing that what he was saying was important and that he needed to get it off his chest or it would only hurt him more in the long run. At the same time, she knew that he had a point somewhere in this tale, so she would just continue to listen and wait for that point to make itself known.

"This boy…I ended up declaring him my rival and did everything I could to try and show him up. It never worked though. I just ended up looking like a fool." Shaking his head and letting out a dry, humorless chuckle, Naruto continued on. "Eventually we graduated from the ninja academy and were placed on the same team. I…hated it. I hated him and couldn't stand being anywhere near him. It didn't help that the girl I had this stupid crush on at the time was on the team and she was one of those girls that did nothing but fawn over him. She never trained and ended up being a worthless member of the team. Looking back on it now, I really don't see why she was made a ninja of the village. She has no worth at one and is likely only to die should she continue in this career."

Frowning at that thought, Naruto shook it out of his head and pressed on with his tale. "That's beside the point though, so let's not get into that. When we met our jonin sensei, it turned out that he was a lazy jackass that didn't want to teach us anything. Well, let me rephrase that. The only one he had any interest in training was my 'rival'. The girl and I didn't matter. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that he was one of those that hated me for some reason."

With a shrug of his shoulders, arms still wrapped around the girl before him, Naruto continued on. "Our teamwork sucked, none of us could get along, and it was a miracle we survived our first mission outside the village or even got through the Chunin Exams as well off as we did. It was there in the Forest of Death that Orochimaru," seeing the look of recognition in Sasame's eyes at that name, Naruto smirked a bit and nodded his head. "Yes, the same Orochimaru that tricked your clan. Anyways, Orochimaru gave my teammate one of his curse marks. It slowly began eating away at his mind and enhancing his darker thoughts and emotions. This mark was sealed with a rather flimsy seal that depended on the individual's willpower. Don't ask me how I know that when I wasn't there for the sealing, even I don't quite understand it yet." _Well, it's more like I already knew a fair deal about seals, but why bother letting those in charge know about that? Meh, I'll probably tell Sasame later…maybe._

Chuckling another humorless set of chuckles, Naruto shook his head and starting speaking again. "I'm sure you realize that that was one of the dumbest seals to use to try and seal off that curse mark. My teammate was a power-hungry moron obsessed with revenge. This seal offered him power and he didn't give a shit what the cost of it was. He didn't even care that Orochimaru was going to use him as a new host body or that he was essentially handing over his Sharingan to the snake bastard."

Looking calmly, yet seriously into his companion's eyes, the blond, spiky-haired shinobi nodded once. "I'm sure you've realized it by now. The boy I'm speaking of, my teammate, was Sasuke Uchiha. Just yesterday I was on a mission to retrieve him. I'm an ex-shinobi of Konohagakure and Sasuke tried to abandon Konoha to join Orochimaru like the idiot he is. My team was attacked by Orochimaru's Sound Four and some jerk named Kimimaro, or at least that's what he called himself when he tried to stop me. My team fought them to give me the time to reach Sasuke and stop him by any means necessary. You already know that I had to take my teammate's life. The last Uchiha remaining is now his brother, Itachi, a missing-nin that's not likely to return to Konoha anytime soon."

Sasame went wide-eyed from the shock of this particular revelation. People throughout the Nations had heard of what transpired and about the 'last loyal Uchiha'. To hear such a thing had happened completely dumbfounded her. But there was something else niggling at her mind that forced her into asking a question. "W-Why did you leave? I've heard nothing but good things about Konohagakure. How it's such a great village and they cherish bloodlines and more. If you left, what reason could you have had for doing so?"

When Naruto began laughing bitterly to himself, the orange-haired girl frowned slightly and had a clear look of worry on her face. Seeing this, the orange-clad ninja sighed and shook his head, wiping some imaginary tears from his eyes. "Yeah, about all that shit you hear about Konoha? It's all bullshit. Most of the people in charge are a bunch of corrupt bastards that think they can do whatever the fuck they want. The villagers and a bunch of the ninja? Complete assholes. You want to know why I left? Well you're going to want to sit down, because this story isn't gonna be pretty Sasame-chan."

The brown-eyed girl frowned deeper, but took Naruto's advice and sat down in front of him, Naruto sitting down with her as she did. As she waited for her friend to speak, Sasame couldn't help but wonder to herself. _What could have been so bad that he would say these things about his own village? What caused him to abandon Konoha?_

Once he had taken a deep breath and prepared himself for what he was going to say next, Naruto opened his eyes and stared hard at Sasame. "You already know that I was lonely as hell growing up, but what you don't know is how the villagers treated me and how those in charge of the village lied to me all my damn life. It was only thanks to a traitor that I stopped that I finally learned the truth. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. First, you need to hear about the villagers and why they deserve whatever hell awaits them in the future."

The orange-haired girl could clearly see the fury burning in her companion's eyes, but she surprisingly didn't flinch or even look away. She knew the look wasn't directed towards her, but at those from his past. While these eyes would have likely scared anyone else, Sasame could only look on in wonder.

"The villagers harassed me, overpriced me for everything I tried to buy, hell…some even wouldn't let me in their damn stores simply because of who I was. There were some attacks, but not as many as one might think. Sadly, those attacks always left me in terrible shape and I oftentimes woke up in the hospital after said attacks." Sighing to himself, Naruto closed his eyes and continued to speak. "I never understood why the villagers would treat me like I was the worst person that had ever been born…or rather, they treated me as if I should never have been born in the first place. Like I was the scum of the planet."

Sighing deeply again, Naruto looked up at the sky and smiled a sad little smile. "I grew up without friends. The only people that were kind to me were a friendly father and daughter from the local ramen stand, the Sandaime Hokage, and Iruka-sensei. Sadly, they all kept the truth hidden from me. I had to learn the secret about me from that stupid, lousy traitor."

Grumbling to himself at this point, Naruto lost himself in a mini-rant about his problems until his orange-haired companion placed her hand on his to get his attention again. Taking a deep breath, Naruto nodded his head in thanks and continued with his tale. "Do you happen to know what a Jinchuriki is Sasame-chan?" Seeing her frown and shake her head in the negative, Naruto nodded and sighed again. "I thought as much. You at least know of the nine Bijuu correct?" Receiving a nod in return, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Well, a Jinchuriki is just what it sounds, a Human sacrifice. Only it's not what one would expect from such a name."

Frowning deeper and gritting his teeth, Naruto clenched his fist tight and spoke again as softly as he could considering what he was remembering. "On that night, that traitor revealed to me that I'm the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. A Jinchuriki is a person that was chosen to host the 'soul' of one of the Bijuu. After all, you can't kill them, only seal them in something. Well, the 'great and wonderful' Yondaime Hokage chose to seal the Kyuubi into me. Why I was chosen? I have no idea. Probably just the 'unlucky' newborn chosen for the job." " _Sorry Kiyoko, not trying to be insulting. Just trying to explain it to her. Again, I don't blame you for any of this."_

Inside his mindscape, Kiyoko simply sighed and responded back quietly. _**"Don't worry about it. I understand. Just finish this conversation and get on with it already. You're here in Oto to fuck with Orochimaru again and escape your pursuers, remember?"**_

 _"I remember Kiyoko, I remember."_ Seeing a look of understanding and what looked like sorrow on Sasame's face, Naruto chuckled a bit and shook his head again. "You don't need to feel pity for me Sasame-chan. I'm fine and I think I'm a better person because of what I've experienced. I strive to be better than what those people tried to make me…what they called me. 'Demon'. If only those idiots knew that they were all far more demonic than Kiyoko-chan is, maybe they'd start to shape up and see things for how they really are."

The brown-eyed lass quirked an eyebrow in confusion at the same time she tilted her head to the right. "Who's Kiyoko?" Suddenly realization hit her and she pounded her right fist into her left palm. "I bet you're talking about the Kyuubi, right?"

Naruto chuckled a little more and nodded his head. "Yep. I just learned her name yesterday, but she's actually pretty cool. Like I said, they may call her a demon, but she's anything but if you ask me. Sure, we didn't get along at first, but after killing Sasuke and realizing how things were for me in the village…I threw away that stupid mask I wore and decided I'd be better off wandering than stuck in a village full of people that hated me. That…and if I had gone back with the Uchiha scumbag dead in my arms, well…"

Sasame frowned and shook her head in disgust at this point. "They would have likely shouted for your execution while praising Sasuke, am I right?" Seeing her friend nod, the young woman scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. "How stupid can those people be?!"

The young Uzumaki male shrugged his shoulders and rose to his feet. Helping Sasame up, he simply grinned lightly at her. "Trust me; they're a bunch of idiots. I didn't even know if I could truly trust anybody anymore after everything I had been through. I have this feeling that some people there knew exactly who my parents were…but they refused to tell me no matter how often I asked. I don't care what reason(s) they might have had for that, I have the right to know who my parents are. I deserve to know if they even wanted me or if I was abandoned. If so, I deserve to know exactly _why_ they chose to abandon me. Y'know?"

Seeing her friend about to go off on a tangent again, Sasame lightly poked his forehead and told him to focus and get back on topic. Chuckling to himself, Naruto nodded and proceeded on with what he wanted to say. "Anyways, the point I was trying to make before is that some people will do anything to get what they want. Even if it means working with criminals and people that want to use them. I can guarantee you that Orochimaru has no interest in helping your clan, but they're naturally too damn blind to see the offer for what it is. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that bastard's experimenting on those members of your clan that left to join him."

At hearing this, Sasame Fuma gained a horrified look on her face and shook her head. "That's not good! If that's the case, I need to go! Before those jerks attacked me, I was trying to find this 'Otogakure' so I could see some of them again! Like I said before, I had my suspicions but no proof. I was going to try and convince them to come back to the clan again, but…now…"

"Now, you're not sure what's become of them or even if they're still alive, am I right?" Seeing his friend nod, Naruto offered a small smile and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll come with you and help save them. But…you should definitely be prepared for the worst. Orochimaru's a sick bastard and there's no telling what could have become of them. So when we get there, I want you to stay close to me. Is that understood?" Seeing Sasame nod once again, the blond ninja grinned and turned around, heading in another direction. "Follow me. A woman pointed out an area to me on this map earlier and I suspect that Otogakure is somewhere in that area. Just…be prepared. There's a good chance that more Oto ninja will be in the area."

Frowning at that information, the young Fuma clan member nodded once before hurrying off after him. Upon catching up to Naruto, Sasame grinned at him and knew that with him beside her, there was no way that she would fail in her mission. If only she knew what she was going to find once they reached their destination…

 _ **Noon – Fire Daimyo's Palace**_

The daimyo of Hi no Kuni sat on a rather comfy cushion reading over a letter he had just received from the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure. The messenger that arrived had declared that it was urgent and that he had to read it immediately. So, with a frown, the daimyo had opened the letter and read it immediately. However, after reading it once, the fire daimyo read it a second and then a third time to be sure he fully understood just what the message was saying to him.

Finally, after a good half an hour of this, the daimyo set the message down and rubbed the area just above the bridge of his nose. "What in the world is going on with Konoha these days? The Kyuubi assault thirteen years ago, the Uchiha massacre, Orochimaru's invasion, now this? I always knew that Uchiha brat would be trouble with his attitude, but this?"

Shaking his head, the daimyo called out for his handmaid. Upon his arrival, the daimyo rose to his feet and walked past the handmaid whom immediately followed after him. "I want you to prepare an escort and a wagon for me. Get the Twelve Guardians and tell them it's important and not to keep me waiting. It's time for me to pay a visit to Konoha and settle a few issues."

As soon as his handmaid was off, the daimyo followed the hallways of his palace until he was outside, the beams of sunlight shining down upon him. Raising one of his hands to block out the sun, the daimyo looked around at his surroundings and thought about the current situation and about the young shinobi that had abandoned the hidden village of Hi no Kuni. _Naruto Uzumaki, eh? Why did you keep this information from me Hiruzen? I do not like being kept in the dark regarding_ their _child. If the situation is as bad as Tsunade says it is, then people are going to answer for what they've done. Starting with that fool Danzo._

Once the daimyo spotted his wagon coming closer, he proceeded forward and waited just outside for his entourage to arrive. The very moment that they showed up, the daimyo would set off for Konoha. Although his features didn't show it, the message Tsunade had delivered to him infuriated him. If things in Konoha didn't improve soon, they could be damn well sure of the fact that he was going to do something to fix the problem!

 _ **Sunagakure**_

Gaara, his siblings, and Baki sat in the Kazekage's office looking over the letter they had received earlier in the day via messenger hawk. None of them were happy to receive a letter from those bastards, but they would at least read the message to see what the hell they wanted. Unlike what the Shinobi Council and Tsunade expected however, Gaara and the others with him could see the truth in what they were reading.

"Those bastards are trying to save face with this crap. But there's something else to this message too." Kankuro stated, clearly displeased with what they just read. He hadn't been in the office when the message first arrived, nor had Temari. The two of them had been called in moments ago to read the letter for themselves and immediately suspected something was off about this particular message.

Temari frowned and decided to voice her opinion. "While it seems like they have Naruto's best interests in mind and are asking us to look out for him, Kankuro is right, there's something else here. Those bastards are trying to manipulate us into taking Naruto in and keeping him here until they can come retrieve him. No way in hell we're letting them take Naruto-kun back. Not after what we saw!"

Gaara nodded his head and closed his eyes after laying the message scroll upon the Kazekage's desk. "My sentiments exactly. They apologized in the letter and essentially tried to butter us up, but after what we saw?" Shaking his head, Gaara frowned deeply and folded his arms across his chest. "They'd have an easier time convincing Orochimaru to give up his evil ways than ever getting us to hand over Naruto. Besides that, whether or not Naruto returns to Konoha should be his choice and his choice _alone_. If he doesn't wish to return, then we'll fight to protect him."

Baki frowned at this and looked into the eyes of each member of his Genin team. "Are you absolutely sure about taking this course of action? If they wished it, Konoha could very well declare war on us for taking their 'weapon'. If he were to come here, Suna itself would be at risk."

The three siblings frowned at this, but Gaara eventually shook his head and released a loud sigh. "Regardless Baki, there are some things friends have to do for one another. Naruto is like me, shunned and hated for something beyond his control. If need be, should Naruto come here, I will offer him a place amongst our ninja. He would be welcomed in our ranks and would earn a promotion in no time, I'm positive of that. Would he have received the same opportunity in Konoha? Doubtful. But…"

Temari seemed to realize what her brother was thinking and voiced their shared thoughts aloud. "Naruto's not coming here…is he?" Seeing the redhead nod in confirmation to her assumption, the blond slacked her shoulders and sighed heavily. "Damn it. He sure acted the part of an idiot, but he's not one, is he?"

Grumbling to herself, Temari looked at her brother Kankuro and sensei Baki and realized she would have to explain. "Naruto must have realized that there are certain places that Konoha would _expect_ him to go. They truly believe that Naruto's as dumb as he acted. Sure, he may not be the most intelligent person in the world, but he's _clever_. Looking back at Naruto's achievements and what we know of him, there are a few places that he knows now not to go."

Gaara decided to take over the explanation from that point. "Nami no Kuni where reports say a bridge is named after him and Naruto is practically worshipped as their hero. The newly named Haru no Kuni where, again, the new daimyo is fond enough of him and regards him as a hero herself. Finally…"

Baki sighed and shook his head. "There's Sunagakure. The reason why is simple: you three. Naruto befriended you three and people in Konoha know it. So young Uzumaki-san realizes that by coming here, he would not only be playing into their hands, proving that they were right about him, but he would be causing trouble for our village. In other words, by not coming straight here…"

Kankuro clenched his fist, shut his eyes and practically snarled out the answer. "Naruto's trying to protect us. That stupid, self-righteous…gah! Friends help one another damn it! Doesn't that little brat know we're worried about him?!"

Gaara shook his head and let a rueful smile cross his face. "That's just who Naruto Uzumaki is. He puts his friends before himself and loved ones above himself. No matter what, Naruto is the kind of person who strives to do the right thing in this world of corruption and greed. If you ask me, I would say those people are right about Naruto; he's a hero."

Kankuro chuckled softly at this and donned a sad smile, nodding his head in agreement with his brother's words. "Got that right. If it wasn't for him…we wouldn't have you back otouto (little brother). To us, Naruto's a hero alright. And we know you're going to make one hell of a Godaime Kazekage thanks to him."

Temari smiled brightly and nodded along in agreement. "He's right, you know? But, what are we going to do regarding Naruto? He's out there on his own and I'm worried about him. I'd at least like to know that he's safe."

At this point, Gaara smirked and closed his eyes, folding his fingers together and propping his chin upon them after placing his elbows upon the desk. "Despite being stuck here, training to take over the position of Kazekage, I do believe I have the right to issue orders to the ninja of Suna. Therefore, I'm going to give you two a new mission." Seeing the smiles on his siblings' faces, Gaara let a devious smirk cross his face. _Naruto, no matter where you are, these two will find you and ensure you are safe. I'll make sure of it._

 _ **Kumogakure – Raikage's Office**_

A, the Yondaime Raikage of Kumogakure, was seated at his desk, lifting a rather large dumbbell with one hand while in the other he held a message from Konohagakure's Godaime Hokage. The more he read, the further up one of his eyebrows raised until it became almost comical. Upon finishing the message, the large, burly man sighed heavily to himself and shouted for Mabui to enter. The very moment she did, A gave her a rather serious stare and motioned for her to shut the door.

Soon, Mabui was standing before her Raikage, looking him dead in the eye and awaiting whatever he was about to say. When he finally did speak, what he would say would shock her beyond what she could have imagined.

"Mabui, what I tell you here remains between us until I can inform the others I want involved in this situation." Seeing his assistant nod in understanding, A began to speak. "The first thing you should know is that something happened just recently in Konohagakure. This event has caused them to contact Kumo despite the fact that my predecessor caused them problems in the past in a feeble attempt to snag the Byakugan (White Eye) for ourselves. Therefore, you can rest assured that this event has major importance to the people of Konohagakure."

Seeing the shocked look on his assistant's face, A could only sigh and close his eyes. "That's not the most shocking part Mabui. After the Uchiha Massacre at the hands of one of their own, Itachi, there was one Uchiha left alive: Itachi's younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha. This is something everyone throughout the nations already knew. However, what we did _not_ know is how very arrogant that little runt had become. According to this message, the people of Konoha pampered him and treated him as if he was a king. Apparently this all went to his head and he developed something of a superiority complex if what Tsunade said is correct."

Grumbling at the idea of an entire village spoiling a young punk like that, A continued on. "It would seem that after receiving a curse mark from Orochimaru, another of their missing nin, the young Uchiha's attitude got worse. He was a power-hungry little mook and his jonin sensei put one of the worst seals he could have used in an attempt to seal its power. A true seals master would have known better than to put a seal on someone that relies on their willpower when the person is a power-hungry little snot. It should go without saying that Sasuke used that cursed seal enough times that he became addicted to the power it gave, despite the costs for doing so."

Mabui frowned at this and decided to venture a bit of a guess as to what happened. "Let me guess. Sasuke, in all his 'infinite wisdom', decided that he would be better off seeking power from Orochimaru, and attempted to leave the village?"

A chuckled softly to himself and nodded his head in the affirmative. "You got it Mabui. The little punk left with a group of Orochimaru's henchmen calling themselves the 'Sound Four'. According to this message, Tsunade sent out a group of 4 Genin and 1 Chunin by the name of Shikamaru Nara to retrieve the little bastard by any means necessary. They encountered quite the bit of opposition along the way, but those little tykes won their battles and finished off the Sound Four. Meanwhile, one of the Genin proceeded on to the Valley of the End where he confronted Sasuke. From how Tsunade described it in this letter, it would seem that a rather large battle took place there between this Genin and Sasuke. In the end, the Genin won the battle and took Sasuke's life. But here's where it gets interesting…"

Mabui frowned to herself. _If Konoha is contacting us, of all people, something more must be going on. The death of the 'last loyal Uchiha' wouldn't be enough to warrant sending a message. So what happened?_ Unable to come up with any kind of logical conclusion that made any sense to her, Mabui elected to simply listen to A's explanation. It would certainly make things easier for her in the long run, all things considered.

Seeing that he once more had his assistant's attention, A smirked and motioned to the message with one of his large hands. "The Genin fled the scene and abandoned the village. It would seem that he made the right decision according to what I've read." At Mabui's confused expression, A donned a rather sad look and shook his head. "Sasuke was practically worshipped by the people of Konoha. After learning of his death, the jonin sensei of the team, the same team Sasuke and that Genin were on, told people that Sasuke's teammate murdered him in cold blood out of something as simple as jealousy."

Shaking his head in disappointment, A listened as Mabui began to speak. "What?! But…how can those people be _that_ damn blind?! That Genin was simply following mission parameters! Bring him back 'by any means necessary'. That means that if Sasuke resisted, that Genin had permission to use lethal force if necessary, and from what you told me about there being signs of a big battle, I'd say lethal force was most certainly required just to survive. I don't care if they worship that little spoiled brat; there are some things that are simply intolerable!"

Eyes suddenly widening in realization, Mabui quickly schooled her features and bowed to the Yondaime Raikage. "My apologies sir. I didn't mean to lose myself like that."

Seeing the normally unflappable woman lose her composure in such a way, A couldn't help it. The burly man clutched his sides as he began laughing hard. When he finally managed to calm himself, much to the relief of the thoroughly embarrassed and furiously blushing silver-haired Mabui, A wiped a few tears from his cheeks and coughed to regain his composure. "It's fine Mabui. It's nice to see you so passionate about the injustice done to a young child like that." Smiling softly at his assistant, he couldn't help but smile a bit brighter when she gave a small smile in return for the kind words of her leader.

After a moment, A continued on. "It's the identity of this young Genin that caught my eye though. Naruto Uzumaki. Tsunade has informed me that this young Genin is the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. Both were good, no, **exceptional** people and worthy of respect. But for some reason, the people of Konoha are calling for his death and the elders, namely that rat Danzo, seem like they're planning to give it to them. There's unrest in Konoha and the Shinobi Council and Tsunade, their Godaime Hokage, are doing what they can to ensure Naruto's safety. Jiraiya seems to be out searching for the boy at this moment, but, if my suspicions are correct, I doubt they'll find young Naruto anytime soon."

Mabui went wide-eyed once more, the pieces quickly being connected in her head. "If things are as bad in Konoha as you said, then they want you and those of us here in to look after Naruto-san if he comes here. But…"

A nodded and handed the message over to Mabui to read. As she did so, he explained his suspicions. "They're not telling us something. If Naruto truly is the son of those two, he should have been respected by the people. He shouldn't have to run in fear from his own village. If my suspicions are correct, I'd say he had a shitty childhood in the village without ever knowing who his parents are. Even more, I'd have to fathom a guess that he's Konoha's Jinchuriki."

Mabui's eyes went even wider than before and she looked into the Yondaime Raikage's eyes. "The Kyuubi attack thirteen years ago! The very day the both of them died…Naruto must have just been born if what you're saying is correct. His own father sealed such a beast inside of him. But…why would they hide his parentage from him? He should have known. The people should have known!"

A shook his head at this and turned to gaze out the window of his tower. "Naruto's a Jinchuriki. My gut's telling me that those blasted elders, Hiruzen Sarutobi's old teammates, and that damned war hawk Danzo let the information slip to the public. Only, they kept Naruto's parentage a secret. I assume they did this for their own gain. Knowing Danzo, he likely wanted to pull the new Jinchuriki into his precious ROOT program. All in an effort to turn him into a more efficient weapon."

The green-eyed assistant nodded her head and glanced back down at the message she was still clutching in her hands. "It makes sense. Make the boy feel like an outcast, and then when he has just about given up, Danzo would show up and offer his hand in friendship to the boy. An elaborate ploy to gain full control over Naruto without the boy questioning anything. He would be so desperate for positive attention that he would easily fall into Danzo's trap. But, I'm assuming things didn't go his way if what I'm reading here is any indication."

A smirked to himself and nodded once again as he looked out at his people wandering the streets below, arms folded behind his back. "My best guess is that old Sarutobi made an effort to interact with the boy as often as possible. A truly positive light in the darkness. Still, the boy should have known about not only his parents, but his burden as well. Not knowing who he is or why he was hated by the village had to be hard on the poor boy."

Mabui nodded and placed the message down on the Raikage's desk. Closing her eyelids, the woman released a heavy sigh and shook her head sadly. "That poor boy. It's no wonder he chose to leave the village then. If he suffered so much and came to the realization that killing the Uchiha boy would result in the villagers calling for his death…well, I think I would have fled the village as well if I was in his shoes. It's the only way to keep himself safe if you take the time to think about it."

With a shrug of his broad shoulders, the Raikage turned to his assistant and smiled as he had finally decided on what his next course of action would be. "We'll do as Tsunade and the Shinobi Council of Konoha requested. We'll keep an eye out for Naruto and we'll keep him safe. But if they come for him, we're going to tell them to piss off. Jinchuriki are people too and deserve to be treated as such. Besides that, Naruto's the son of a great man and woman. I will not turn him over to a bunch of beasts that would sooner see him dead than getting the treatment he truly deserves. Now, I want you to call Team Samui. Tell them that I have a mission of the utmost importance that I want them to undertake. Also do your best to gather the villagers and ninja of the village below the tower. I'm going to make a little announcement."

Seeing the smirk on the Yondaime Raikage's face, Mabui donned a bright smile and nodded her head emphatically. "Right away A-sama. I'll get right on that." With a quick bow, Mabui hurried out of the room to take care of the tasks assigned to her.

Back inside the Raikage's office, A looked up at the ceiling and chuckled dryly. "Minato, I wonder how you'd feel if you could see your village now. Would they see the famous Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō (Konoha's Yellow Flash) in action once more as you destroyed their pathetic existence? Or would you try to set things right again? I admit, I can't imagine what you would do, but I know for sure you would be disappointed with how they treated your child. Wherever he is, I'll make sure to look out for him for you and give him a proper home where he'll be treated with nothing but respect and love. I promise you that."

 _ **Half an hour later – Otogakure**_

Naruto and Sasame had spent at least half the day searching for the location of Otogakure. They had managed to avoid confrontation with the few Oto ninja patrolling the area, but that didn't really help lift Sasame's mood any. She was worried, incredibly so, about her clansmen, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to save them on her own, much less find the entrance to this so called 'hidden village'.

Looking at it now, the two of them had to agree that this wasn't a hidden village. No, this was one of Orochimaru's hideouts; a place for Orochimaru to run his little experiments while others around remained blissfully unaware of just what was transpiring in this base.

With a sigh, Naruto ran his fingers through his hair and turned to look at his companion. "Well, it looks like we found it Sasame-chan. From here on though, we need to be extra careful. We don't know what kind of traps he could have laid out for us, nor do we know what kind of enemies we may face within." Looking sadly at his orange-haired friend, Naruto placed a hand upon her shoulder and smiled sadly at her. "Sasame-chan…there's a chance we might have to fight members of your clan. Can you handle it if it comes down to that? If not, let me know now. I won't force you to confront them if it comes down to a fight. You can just leave everything to me if you prefer."

The brown-eyed girl shook her head and stared hard into her new friend's eyes. "No, if we're going to do this, we're doing this together. If they've sided with Orochimaru, then we truly may not have a choice. I'd prefer it if we didn't have to fight, but I will if I must. Now, lead the way Mr. Prankster."

As Sasame giggled to herself, Naruto shook his head and almost regretted telling her all about his pranks back in the village he escaped from. During their search for this hidden base, the two of them had talked quite a lot about their lives up to this point in time, any adventures the two of them had, their likes, dislikes, etc., and just generally spent time learning more about one another. Sasame had enjoyed a great number of his stories very much and found herself giggling more than she ever had before. Naruto, meanwhile, quite enjoyed Sasame's company and found her to be a delightful person to be around once they got more comfortable with each other.

Now, as they entered the base, Naruto began putting his skills as a prankster to good use as he kept an eye out for traps, disarming the ones he found while helping his companion to avoid those he couldn't disarm. Still, the two of them (three if you count Kiyoko) were being very cautious. Something clearly wasn't right here, and it was bothering them greatly.

Turning to her partner, Sasame nudged him and whispered to him quietly as they peered around a corner, looking down two separate paths. "I thought for sure there would be more guards or something. The traps are easy enough to handle, but shouldn't there be guards too?"

As Naruto went to respond, the two of them suddenly heard the sound of an instrument coming from a nearby room. Frowning to themselves, the two of them followed the sound until they reached the door where the noise was coming from. Nodding to each other, Naruto reached for the doorknob and yanked the door open, peering inside the room and taking a few cautious steps inside.

When Sasame followed him in, peering over her shoulder towards the center of the room, she frowned upon noticing the instrument, but not the person that had obviously been playing it mere moments ago. After all, it was impossible for the koto to play itself. Upon hearing a voice speaking to the two of them, the orange-haired Fuma clan member spun around to see who had managed to sneak up on her.

The person that had approached the duo turned out to be a beautiful black-haired woman with black eyes dressed in a red kimono and, from what it appeared, not much else underneath it. As she looked down on the two before her, a small smile made its way upon her face. "I see a couple of little mice have made their way into the spider's lair. Oh?" Peering into the eyes of her clan mate, the woman donned a sinister smirk. "And would you look at that? Little Sasame-chan makes her appearance. What do you want this time?"

Naruto frowned as he looked into this woman's eyes. She was definitely the one that lured the two of them into this room, but for what purpose? Glancing to her hands and then darting his eyes around the room, the blond shinobi grimaced inwardly. _"Kiyoko-chan, I don't like this. Any ideas?"_

Inside his mindscape, Kiyoko opened one of her eyes and yawned before sitting up and connecting herself to Naruto's senses so she could see what was going on. _**"Hmm, this woman's definitely up to something. I recommend stepping away from her before she gets much closer though. She's preparing some kind of poison, but whether she's going to use it on you or your friend is unknown to me right now. You might want to restrain her and have the girl with the orange hair try to talk some sense into her. Other than that, just do your best to handle this situation Naruto."**_

While Naruto was trying to decide the best way to handle this situation, Sasame was looking hard at her fellow Fuma clan member, trying to figure out how to talk some sense into her. Finally, after a few brief moments, the brown-eyed lass stood firm and began to speak. "Kotohime-san, you must have realized by now what kind of monster Orochimaru is! Naruto…he told me about things that snake has done before and what he was going to do."

Taking a deep breath and clenching her hands into fists, Sasame glared into Kotohime's eyes and spoke louder than before. "Orochimaru never had any intention of helping the Fuma clan! If anything, he's only going to use us and then destroy what's left once he's done playing with our clan like his little toys. Please help us find the others Kotohime-san and let's be out of here. Our clan deserves better than serving and suffering under the likes of Orochimaru."

Before Kotohime could respond or even act upon any ill intent she may have, she suddenly found herself bound in ninja wire and her chakra flow cut off. Collapsing to her knees, she looked behind her to see the young boy she had dismissed moments before with his hands formed into the Ram hand seal. "W-What did you just do to me boy?"

Frowning sadly at the woman, Naruto Uzumaki could only shake his head. "You were planning something. You never had any intention of listening to Sasame-chan's words. You were stalling for time, waiting for the right moment to strike. So, I slipped a sealing tag on your back while you were distracted. It's not hard to hide my presence from people when I need to; after all, I did it all the time back in the village I'm from. For now, until I remove the seal I placed on you, you're not going to be able to do anything. Now, I want to know what you were doing here. I also want you to understand that we are not going to hurt you, nor are we going to kill you. We expect you to come with us peacefully and help us convince your fellow clan members to leave this base with the two of us willingly. Orochimaru is only using you, but I don't know what for. You can be rest assured though that it _isn't_ good. Now, are you going to listen and behave, or do I have to slap a few more tags on you? Trust me, if I have to do that, you're going to regret it. These tags will do so much worse than simply seal off your chakra, I can guarantee it."

At Naruto's sinister grin, both girls began to feel increasingly more nervous. With a quick gulp, Kotohime nodded her head in response, quickly agreeing to talk. She did _not_ want to know what the other tags did. So, with a resigned sigh, the black-haired woman began to talk. "I don't know what Orochimaru-sa…Orochimaru wanted. I do know that Arashi and the others were taken somewhere else deeper inside though. Not sure what happened to them because I haven't seen them since. As for Orochimaru? He's not here anymore. I don't know where he is or where he could have gone, but that's really all I know. As for why I'm here? I was simply charged with dealing with any intruders that might come along. Obviously I failed to do so. I'm probably as good as dead now."

Sighing at that kind of talk, Naruto walked over, flicked her in the forehead, and then ripped the seal off her back. "Don't talk like that. As long as you're with us, you're fine. Besides, Orochimaru's probably going to be busy for a while. I deprived him of the new body he desired, so he no doubt was forced to use a different body to inhabit. I'm not sure what the process is like, but I doubt it's a painless procedure. So he should _hopefully_ be out of commission for a while. Even so, it's not like he'd be interested in visiting this base again for a while. After what I did, he's probably got his goons searching for me everywhere **but** here in his Oto base."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Naruto helped the lovely black-haired woman to her feet and spun around, walking right for the door once again. Before he stepped through the doorway however, he turned his head slightly and smirked devilishly at his new companion. "By the way, that ceiling trap was a pretty interesting touch. If you had activated that one, I wonder if we could have all gotten away from it. Guess we'll never know now, will we?" Chuckling darkly to himself, Naruto walked out into the hallway and disappeared from sight.

After a moment of silence, the two Fuma females looked into each other's eyes and shivered slightly. "Sasame-chan, I'm not going to bother asking you where you found this guy. I just need to know one thing: is it even safe being around him? He's kind of freaking me out, and that's saying something considering the kind of company we tend to keep in our clan."

The orange-haired girl released a sigh and shook her head. "Right now I think he's just playing with us. Back where he's from, he was known as the Prankster King from Hell, or at least that's what he told me. Some of what he's told me about his pranks seem so farfetched that I feel they _must_ be true. Naruto's actually a really good guy that's been through a lot of crap. So, really…I just think he's playing with us a bit. It's not the nicest thing to do, but I can't say I blame him." With a shrug of her shoulders, Sasame Fuma hurried off after her friend.

Kotohime found herself sighing heavily and shook her head. "Well, if you're sure Sasame-chan. I'll believe you and place my trust in this boy. But…" Frowning as she followed Sasame out into the hallway, the young woman finished the rest of her thought silently in her mind. _He almost reminded me of my own insanity. It's one of the things I dislike most about my state of being right now. I just hope it doesn't consume me._

 _ **Kirigakure – Mizukage's Office**_

The newly instated Godaime Mizukage found herself staring at a message she had received just moments ago. _Why would Konoha be contacting me already? I asked them for help winning this war before and they refused and fed me some bullshit answer. I never even got to speak to the Hokage at the time! I swear this had better be good or somebody's going to answer for pissing me off._

Sighing angrily to herself, the beautiful woman clad in a blue dress that revealed a fair bit of skin and cleavage opened the scroll and began to read over what was written. As she continued to read, her left eyebrow quirked higher and higher until it eventually shot up into her hairline and she began to chuckle dryly to herself. "So that's what's going on. A spoiled brat gets killed and they take it out on a poor kid that's different, huh? But I see what you're trying to do Konoha."

Frowning to herself, Mei called for Ao and Chojuro and waited for them to arrive in her office. The moment they did, she ordered them to shut the door and activated the silencing seals in her office once they sat down in the chairs opposite her desk. "Ao, Chojuro, thank you for coming as quickly as you did." Passing the message scroll over to the two, she took a deep breath and began to explain the current problem. "As you can see, I received a message from Konoha just minutes prior to calling you. I'll allow you the time to read the message for yourselves. I want you to see what I did after I read it as carefully as I did."

Just as she said, the Mizukage gave the two all the time they needed to read over the message and think things over. Eventually, they both looked up and into the Godaime's eyes and shook their heads. After a moment, Ao chose to voice what everyone thought. "They're trying to manipulate us. They screwed up and now they want us to look out for this boy until they come to retrieve him. They tried to sugarcoat it with some sweet words and tried to play on the emotions we're still feeling in regards to what just happened to make us feel for the boy, to relate to him. But in the end, they're simply trying to make sure they can keep the boy in one place so they don't have to keep hunting for him. It's a good plan, but a poorly hidden one. If they're trying such a thing with us after refusing us help before, they must be truly desperate. What are you thinking Mei-sama?"

The beautiful auburn-haired woman shook her head and sighed sadly. "If what's written there is true, and I do believe it is, I feel for the boy. I can tell that Tsunade truly cares for him, but if he left, I highly doubt that young Naruto is going to want to return to Konohagakure. If the villagers hate him anywhere near as much as what the Godaime Hokage explained in the letter, it doesn't sound like it would be a truly safe place for him to return to, especially now that he's killed the last Uchiha. Besides, it's only natural I'd be at least _curious_ about the boy. His last name is **Uzumaki**. They were once such a great clan. It's a shame what happened to them, and I'm disappointed that Kiri played a part in their destruction."

Shaking her head again, Mei chose to focus on the Uzumaki boy again. "If Naruto is truly an Uzumaki, I would very much like to meet the boy. My clan was quite fond of the Uzumaki clan. They were good people with incredible skills. If only for the reason of wanting to befriend the boy, I would very much like to see him brought here to Kiri. I can say this though: I don't care what Konoha wants. I don't appreciate how its people have treated what is likely one of the last, if not _the_ last member of the Uzumaki clan. If Naruto chooses to reside here in Kiri, then he will be given a home here and will receive nothing but the best of accommodations. It would be far better than subjecting him to whatever hell awaits him back in Konohagakure. So with this in mind, I have a mission for you Ao."

Seeing the look in Mei's eyes, Ao nodded his head in understanding. "I understand. You would like me to search for this boy and escort him here, wouldn't you Mei-sama?"

Mei nodded calmly and then glanced into Chojuro's eyes. "While Ao scours the Elemental Nations with a team of his choosing, I want you to select a team and keep an eye out for him here in Mizu no Kuni. If you spot him, convince him to return with you to the village. In a gentle manner please, I don't want him to feel threatened in any way by any of you. Is this understood?" Seeing the both of them nod, Mei smiled and made a shooing motion with her hand. "Good. Go on and get to it then. I do believe I have a reply to write." With a small smirk, she watched as her two friends left the office and turned back to the message lying upon her desk. "Sorry Tsunade, but I'm afraid Konoha really screwed up this time."

 _ **Otogakure Base – 20 minutes later**_

The group of three found themselves grumbling as they finally neared what they hoped was their final destination in this damned base. They had been searching for what felt like hours now, but it had likely only been a matter of minutes. Upon reaching the door, Naruto inspected it and the surrounding area for any traps before pushing it open and looking inside. What he saw made his blood boil. "Kabuto."

Kiyoko was quick to correct him, already deducing correctly that this wasn't Kabuto, but only an impostor. _**"No Naruto-kun, this is not the snake's personal toy. This is something else entirely. Most likely just somebody trying to trick you into getting angry and becoming sloppy. But what confuses me is how this person could have known anything about you. It seems highly unlikely that Orochimaru or any of his goons would have been expecting you to be here. So there must be something else…"**_

The blond shinobi shook his head and frowned at that thought. _"It doesn't matter Kiyoko-chan. Whoever it is obviously isn't interested in talking. If he, or she, is an enemy, I'll take them down no matter what. But…I really don't think they knew I was coming. What if this person was ordered to take on Kabuto's appearance to make it appear that he had been left in charge of this base? Meanwhile, the snake and his little butt buddy are off somewhere else with the subjects of this base being none the wiser. I think that's probably the most likely scenario if we look at this logically."_

Kiyoko quirked a brow and then shook her bewilderment off. _**"Well, it looks like cramming all this knowledge into your brain is helping your thought processes at least. It's also improved your grammar and given you more words to play around with. But enough of the teasing. For now, I want you to focus and take this person down, regardless of who they happen to be. I doubt they're going to give you any time to attempt a peaceful solution."**_

Nodding calmly to himself, Naruto stepped forth and, after ensuring there weren't any traps in the area, stood across from the Kabuto impostor. "I don't know who you are, but I already know you _aren't_ Kabuto. So why don't you drop the disguise and we can settle this the old-fashioned way, ne?"

The Kabuto impostor simply chuckled and shook his(?) head. "So you saw through me, eh boy? That's fine; this disguise wasn't of any importance." With a shrug of his(?) shoulders, the Kabuto impostor brought his hands up into a single hand seal and dispelled the transformation, reverting to the impostor's true appearance.

As soon as the disguise was dropped, Sasame immediately dropped to one knee and bowed her head. "Kagero-sama! It's good to see you again. Please, tell me you aren't going to fight us?!" True enough, the person before them was a beautiful woman with teal green-colored hair and dull dark blue eyes. She was barely any taller than Naruto and Sasame, and she had pale skin. Despite the situation, Naruto had to admit that she was really very pretty.

The young woman glanced briefly towards her clan member before returning her gaze to the boy in front of her. "Orochimaru-sama is the one who will return our clan to its former glory. If you will oppose me and deny me my goal, then yes, we must fight."

Naruto shook his head and smiled sadly at the woman before him. "I'm really sorry, but Orochimaru never had any plans to help you Kagero-san. I can tell you that Orochimaru is really very good at offering sweet promises laced with a bit of honey. Just enough to draw you in and tempt you, but when he finally reels you in, it turns out to be a simple trap. I've seen a few examples of this in the few encounters I've had with that lousy snake."

Despite herself, Kagero found herself curious about where the young man before her was going with this. So, holding herself back from attacking for now, the woman decided to voice her question. "If this is true, would you please tell me about these instances? I feel it would help me to see your side of things a bit clearer."

The young blond, blue-eyed shinobi smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Sure. I don't see the harm in telling you about it." Staring calmly into the woman's eyes, Naruto began his little tale. "The first instance I'll tell you about has to do with his former teammate, a woman going by the name of Tsunade Senju. After having his arms wounded by the Sandaime Hokage before his death, Orochimaru sought her out in an attempt to get her to heal his arms. In order to tempt her into giving him what he wanted, Orochimaru offered to revive her deceased loved ones: her lover Dan and little brother Nawaki. Of course, Orochimaru's offer wasn't a true one. At least not in the sense she would have preferred."

Shaking his head at this, Naruto frowned at Kagero and continued on, trying to steer the topic away from that particular instance. "I won't reveal too much regarding that situation. I respect Tsunade and what Orochimaru attempted to do would have sullied and insulted them beyond anything that could have been forgiven."

With a shrug, Naruto moved onto the second instance. "The more important example I can give you is of Sasuke Uchiha, my deceased teammate. Orochimaru offered Sasuke power. The kind of power that would help him to kill his older brother, Itachi Uchiha. However, Orochimaru's 'gift' of power wasn't such a gift. It was a curse that ate away at his sanity, or whatever remained of it. Just recently Sasuke decided to leave the village to join Orochimaru in order to get more power. If Sasuke had made it, Orochimaru wouldn't have given Sasuke any power. He would have taken Sasuke's body for his own. Orochimaru wants the Sharingan **badly** , but it's for a pretty lousy goal I think."

Shrugging again, the whiskered boy looked calmly into Kagero's eyes and smiled sadly at her. "I had to kill my teammate to keep Orochimaru from getting his hands on Sasuke's body and the Sharingan. I understand that when a person is desperate enough to achieve their goals that sometimes they'll do things they wouldn't do otherwise. Orochimaru offered your clan something, and seeing no other way to achieve it, you took the chance he gave you without a second thought. But…it's not what you expected, is it?"

Frowning at his words, the woman with teal green hair slowly closed her eyes and nodded her head. "It is…different from what I expected. We truly believed…some of us _still_ believe that he can help us restore our glory. But…despite my suspicions of him, I chose to do his bidding. I care about my people and want only the best for our clan. But I've seen what he's done to some of our clan members…to Arashi…" Glancing at Sasame at this point, the beautiful young woman smiled sadly. "What Orochimaru has done to Arashi has changed him into something terrible. It was this occurrence that truly showed me just what our alliance with Orochimaru has cost us. He has taken away our humanity and degraded our clan into practically nothing."

Looking straight into Naruto's blue eyes at this point, Kagero stepped out of his way and motioned with her hand for him to move forward. "If you wish to help our clan and set things right, you need to deal with Arashi. I fear that he may never be the same and his peace may only lie in death." Glancing into Sasame's eyes at this point, Kagero smiled sadly. "If you wish to go with him to say good-bye to Arashi, now is your only chance. But I'm afraid that you won't like what you see."

The orange-haired girl nodded slowly, a determined look appearing on her face as she quickly caught up with Naruto and followed him to the area ahead. What she saw Arashi do shocked her greatly. While she and Naruto stood there, watching the warped man kill two of his clansmen, the blond found himself disgusted by this act. It didn't help matters any when Sasame's cousin performed the Shisha Kugutsu (Casualty Puppet) jutsu to absorb the two now deceased clansmen into himself, transforming his body into something truly grotesque. _Somehow this is fitting. The man was lost to himself and became a monster. Now? He really looks like one._

While Sasame stood frozen at what she just witnessed and what she was now seeing, Arashi slowly turned to face the newcomers. With a small chuckle, he looked straight into Sasame's eyes. "Well if it isn't little Sasame-chan. Have you come to see your cousin paint these walls with blood? Perhaps you're even here to offer yourself to me so I can flay apart your body and spread your entrails to the bowels of the planet? There's so much I could do with that body of yours Sasame-chan that would truly make this place look so much better."

Naruto's right eyebrow twitched a moment before he shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and assume he wasn't like this before and say it's safe to kick his ass now. Am I right Sasame-chan?"

Sasame shakily nodded her head, still unable to believe what had become of her cousin. It just didn't seem at all possible for someone to change so much in so short a time! What the hell had Orochimaru done to him?!

The abomination turned its attention slowly to the boy approaching him with a confident look in his eyes. "Oh-ho! A new volunteer to help me test my new power? Then let's get to it! Kamikiri, why don't you remove his head, ne? I think it would make such a lovely decoration."

As Arashi chuckled darkly to himself, one of the growths attached to his back suddenly extended and an odd scissor-like blade appeared in its hands. Soon enough, it lunged straight at Naruto who simply moved aside and slashed with a kunai, cutting deep into the abomination that had come so close. As it and Arashi howled out in a mixture of pain and anger, Naruto quickly performed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and summoned forth a group of sixteen Kage Bunshin. With a quick nod of the head, he watched as they each took off to start their own tasks. This battle wouldn't simply be a battle where he spammed Kage Bunshin as he usually did. This time, he would take his opponent down as quickly and efficiently as possible before anything terrible could happen.

Sasame could only watch in awe as Naruto and Arashi did battle. Every time the abomination would have Kamikiri or Jigumo attack, Naruto or the clone that was targeted would avoid the attack, and if they couldn't, another clone or Naruto himself would save the one targeted. With all the Naruto's jumping and flipping about, it was impossible for either the abomination or Sasame to know which was the real one.

After a moment, Arashi let out a high-pitched shriek that forced everyone to cover their ears. The Arashi abomination was furious at his inability to hit the little blond pipsqueak and began to go on a rampage, swinging his fists around, flinging spider webs everywhere, and cleaving pillars and clones in half using the blade. All-in-all, things became very hectic, _very_ fast.

Snarling to himself, the whiskered blond summoned a few more Kage Bunshin and hid himself in the shadows. Enhancing his eyesight with Kiyoko's chakra, he focused in on Arashi and formulated a plan to separate the abomination into its component parts once more. So, forming another Kage Bunshin, he had it get to work creating a Rasengan in his right hand while keeping an eye on the battle just in case.

As the last two clones kept Arashi distracted, Sasame looked around, curious as to what that new noise was that she was hearing. It was then that she saw him, dashing towards Arashi, or at least the monster that her cousin had become. In Naruto's hand was a bright blue ball of pure chakra! Once more looking on in awe, she saw Naruto plunge the blue ball into her cousin's chest, sending the abomination spiraling into a pillar some distance away.

Stepping towards the freak, Naruto signaled to the Kage Bunshin he had hidden away to get behind the monster. After getting close enough, Naruto waited for Arashi's next move. When he rose and shouted out the name of his chosen jutsu, Naruto quickly swapped places with one of the Kage Bunshin and watched as the jutsu, which was apparently named Jubaku Mandara (Curse Mandala), capture his Kage Bunshin inside.

As Arashi began crushing the Kage Bunshin, Naruto and his hidden clones sprung from behind the creature and tore it apart, ripping the deceased bodies from Arashi and flinging them aside. "Sorry for simply tossing them like that, but I can't have you using that jutsu any longer! Now wake the fuck up Arashi and snap out of it!" Landing in front of the older man, the real Naruto Uzumaki swung his fist in a haymaker, landing a powerful, yet sloppy blow on the man's face that sent him crashing to the floor and skidding several feet away on his back.

When Sasame rushed forward to check on the state of her cousin, Naruto dusted himself off and glanced to the side at the women that had been watching the entire thing. "Not sure if that'll work or not, but at least Sasame gets a chance to say good-bye to him if nothing else."

When Kagero simply smiled at him and Kotohime gave an odd twitch of her lips, Naruto simply smiled and turned to watch Sasame and Arashi. While he was glad they could talk like this now, he couldn't help but frown. Something didn't feel quite right to him about this situation.

After having a heartfelt talk with Sasame, Arashi rose to his feet and looked towards the one that had defeated him. Before he could say anything, the base started to rumble and large stones began falling from up above. "Shit! Those pillars were holding this room together! Hurry, you need to get out of here! All of you!"

Sasame didn't like what she was hearing and began tugging on her cousin's hand. "What the heck do you mean by that?! Aren't you coming with us Arashi-niichan?"

Kagero frowned and stepped forward, placing a soft hand upon Sasame's shoulder. "Arashi-san can't join us in our escape Sasame. What Orochimaru has done to him has affected your cousin more than you know. This moment of serenity is not one that can last." Shaking her head, the blue-eyed woman smiled sadly at the cousins. "I'm afraid there's really nothing that we can do to help Arashi-san. So let's do as he says and escape while he does what he can here to ensure our escape. I'm sorry Sasame."

Naruto frowned at this and shook his head. Walking over to Arashi, the blond ninja stared hard into his eyes. "I hope you know that this decision of yours has fucked everything up for you and your clan. From what Sasame-chan told me, the clan had really high hopes for you. By joining Orochimaru, all of that hope disappeared almost as if in a cloud of smoke. I promise you this though: I will find a way to restore the Fuma clan to their former glory, no matter how long it takes. So when you join Kami up in her realm, do me a favor and watch over Sasame-chan and the rest of the Fuma clan from up there, got it?"

Without waiting for Arashi's response, Naruto lifted the orange-haired girl into his arms and took off at high speeds out of the hideout with Kagero and Kotohime following him just seconds later. As they left, Arashi couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself as he used what little power he had left in him to keep the hideout together. "He's a good kid. I hope he really can find a way to help the clan. Though I personally hope he can help Sasame-chan through this. She's going to be hurting for a while after I did this to her. Poor girl…"

 _ **Konohagakure – Evening**_

Whereas it would normally take a day or two to reach Konohagakure from Hi no Kuni's capital, the daimyo had insisted that they move at a quickened pace because the situation at hand was not something that could wait a moment longer than it had to. So, despite his horses and entourage being a little winded, they had certainly made excellent time in reaching the village.

Now, as the daimyo and his escorts walked through the village on their way to the Hokage tower, they came across a disturbance. What he was seeing only caused the daimyo to quirk a brow in curiosity before what he heard began causing his anger to grow to previously thought impossible levels for him.

There, standing on a raised platform in front of a large crowd of villagers was the elderly war hawk, Danzo Shimura. His words were like honey to the ears of the more fanatical villagers. These people were the ones crying out for Naruto's death after what happened to their precious Sasuke Uchiha. What really made this worse is the fact that what looked like over half the village was here, listening to the old man's words!

"People of Konohagakure, listen to me and heed my words! The Godaime Hokage has become a truly incompetent leader. She has let that demon control her mind and turn her against the very people of this village. She cares not for your desires, your wishes to see that 'boy' killed for his crimes! No, in fact at this very moment she's doing everything she can to ensure that the demon is _protected_! Will you, the citizens of this fine village stand for this?!"

At the resounding cheer of the crowd, Danzo let a ghost of a smirk cross his face. "In that case, I call for a vote of no confidence in the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju. We will remove her from her office and appoint someone that will actually tend to this village's needs in her stead! With the fire daimyo's approval, I would like to think the next Hokage will be a worth candidate and someone that will set things right. One that will fix all the problems this village has now because of that worthless woman!"

Before anyone could say anything further, and before Danzo could spout anymore of his crap, the Fire Daimyo made his voice heard and stepped forth from the crowd. "You won't be getting any support from me, Danzo Shimura. In fact, from what I've heard, I think it's time someone ended your senseless dribble and slapped you in irons, if not worse. Guardians, arrest this man and drag him to the Council chambers for me. I have a certain Hokage to see."

Turning on his heels, the Fire Daimyo looked at the villagers that had gathered and sneered in disgust. "You people truly disgust me. Treating a young child in such a manner? Tch." Walking through the crowd, the daimyo stopped just before entering his carriage. Turning back to the people gathered, the daimyo watched with grief as Danzo managed to slip away before he could be detained. Shrugging that off, the daimyo looked to the people once more and let a small smirk play across his face. "To think, you would treat the late Yondaime's only child in such a way. It's no wonder he left the village if this is what the child of those two heroes had to come home to." And with those words, the daimyo left a stunned crowd behind as he made his way towards the Hokage tower once more.

 **A/N:** **Not exactly my best chapter, but for most of the time I was writing this, I was just feeling like major crap. I couldn't seem to clear my head, music only helped so much, etc. Did the best I could though...but the fight at the end? Ugh. I just don't feel I did a very good job with the end of this chapter with the Arashi scene. . I felt I could pull off the insanity a bit better, but I just...I'm really not doing so well. Sooo...fuck it. I just hope it works. *shrugs***

 **Anyways, regardless of that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, I apologize if any of it just doesn't seem up to snuff compared to my usual work, but...sometimes I'm just not doing so well and it can affect my writing ability. *shrugs* I hope you can forgive me for that.**

 **As you can see, things are getting pretty interesting. The other villages easily saw through Shibi's offered plan, but they haven't exactly refused to cooperate either. Makes things interesting methinks. Then there's the fire daimyo and the issue at the end with Danzo. Things are going to progress from there and it should be interesting to see what comes next. *nods***

 **As for Naruto and the Fuma clan members, just wait for the coming chapters and you'll see what happens regarding them. I already know what I'm going to do with Sasame, but I'm unsure about what to do regarding Kagero and Kotohime. I really am. lol. I am open to suggestions if you really have something to offer me that you think would work out fairly well. I'm always willing to hear you guys out!**

 **Okay, I really need to get some sleep. Got some crap to do pretty early in the morning and I should've gone to sleep a few hours ago. Sooo...yay for being extra tired when I wake up to take care of that stuff! Oh well. Again, hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Before I begin, I would just like to point something out for everyone. Thanks to a certain reviewer whom I will not name, I decided to nip a little problem in the bud before beginning this chapter.**

 **Naruto is NOT going to become godlike or unstoppable immediately just because he is getting information pumped directly into his mind! If you bother to read that section thoroughly in chapter 1 or 2, whichever one it was in, you will understand that, regardless of having the information, he has no real way to _use_ said information yet.**

 **Think of it this way. You can give a person a weapon, but without proper instruction in how to _use_ that weapon, it's essentially useless in that person's hands. The same can be said for knowledge. Knowledge IS power, but finding a way to put that knowledge to use, whether good or bad, can be difficult sometimes.**

 **With Naruto, the situation is similar. He is going to have to train hard just to get the hang of what he's learned. There's going to be problems and he isn't going to be unstoppable. It's one of those things that is going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work. Shadow Clones can only do so much to help him get the hang of using certain things. For true mastery over something however, Naruto has to get the hang of using jutsu by himself, using the Taijutsu style he's being taught, using fuinjutsu, etc. etc. etc.**

 **So really, it'll be some time yet before Naruto has truly earned that kind of power in this story. I would never just give Naruto that kind of ability, nor would I give it to anybody else in any of my stories. Unless of course it's a power they've already had before the story even began or something, in which case I'll keep it that way and try to make things as interesting as I can.**

 **So please, just enjoy the story and don't accuse me of doing stupid crap like that when I know very well what I'm doing. Thank you. Now enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – The Daimyo's Decision & Dark Secrets Revealed**

In the early morning, as the Fire Daimyo entered the Council chambers, he couldn't help but quirk a brow at the two struggling elders sitting chained up on the floor in the middle of the room. Chancing a questioning glance at Tsunade Senju, the Godaime Hokage, he found her shaking her head at him and mouthing that she'd explain in a moment. So, with a simple shrug of his shoulders, the Daimyo took his seat and waited for the expected people to join them.

It wasn't a long wait, but it certainly wasn't an exciting time for either the Hokage or the Daimyo. By the time the Shinobi Council and the Twelve Guardian Ninja entered the Council chambers, the elders had just about shouted every curse they could think of at the busty and beautiful Godaime Hokage. Seeing the others taking their seats and various positions around the room, the Daimyo looked to Tsunade and spoke in a commanding tone. "Tsunade-san, I believe I have waited quite long enough. Explain to me just what is going on. I want the **full** story so I understand everything that has taken place. Start at the very beginning. I will wait until you have finished with your tale to speak my mind."

The lovely Senju woman released a heavy sigh before nodding and diving into the story she had to tell. "Hai Daimyo-sama. As you are already aware, Naruto Uzumaki is the son of Minato Namikaze, this village's Yondaime Hokage, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, heiress to Uzushiogakure." Seeing the Daimyo nod, Tsunade nodded in turn and continued on. "This birth took place on the same night as the Kyuubi attack thirteen years ago. Regardless of the facts we have about that night, there remains a mystery revolving around that night's incident that has yet to be truly solved as far as I know."

Without needing any instruction to continue, Tsunade sighed and shook her head. "That's not important to this story though. It's just…odd. The point is, somehow the Kyuubi escaped Kushina's seal and was subsequently sealed within baby Naruto after the Kyuubi had managed to cause a great deal of damage to the village and its people. This tragedy and what Minato did to his own son…caused his life to be hellish within the village as far as I have heard."

When one of the ANBU delivered a file to the Guardian on the Daimyo's right, he reached out and took the file from the Guardian's hand, thanking both of them for it politely before opening it and looking at its contents, all the while he continued to listen to Tsunade's tale.

"What you see before you is the testimonies of a large number of people about the kind of life Naruto has lived here in the village. The final one that you will read in there is one that I had recorded in secret while talking to Naruto one day about his life here. As you will read, he had a very unpleasant life here before becoming a shinobi. But even after that, there were still problems."

The Daimyo could only nod his head as a snarl of disgust formed on his face. What he was reading at the moment disturbed the old man greatly and he found it hard to swallow just how far Konoha and its people had fallen to treat a **child** in such a way! _This is disgusting! I clearly have let the people of this village get away with far too much. Once she finishes her tale, I'll be taking charge and things are going to be fixed in this village, one way or another._

"Teachers actively sabotaged Naruto in the academy while favoring certain other students, such as the Uchiha that died as a result of the recent mission." Seeing the Daimyo nod in understanding and motion her to continue on, Tsunade continued. "Eventually, Naruto became a Genin of Konohagakure and proceeded to do many great things in the service of his home, despite how he was treated. He inspired the people of Nami no Kuni to rise up against a tyrant and was named a hero of that nation. They even named their bridge after him."

Seeing the Daimyo's smile, Tsunade smiled in turn and continued on. "In the Chunin Exams held here in Konoha, he fought off Orochimaru to protect his teammates whereas the Uchiha was too afraid to even move or fight back. During the invasion where Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, was killed, Naruto fought against the enemy Jinchuriki from Sunagakure, Gaara, and came out the victor. He fought in defense of not only his home, but again in defense of both of his teammates. Once again, the Uchiha proved useless against an opponent from what reports I have, though, once again, most people chose to give credit to the ungrateful, spoiled little shit."

Sighing heavily, Tsunade shook her head and looked straight into the Daimyo's eyes. "Then he came and found me with Jiraiya, the Gama Sennin (Toad Sage). It was thanks to Naruto Uzumaki that I came to overcome my fear of blood and returned to the village to become its Godaime Hokage. Finally, he helped restore the happiness and faith of the new daimyo of the now-named Haru no Kuni. Koyuki Kazehana cares for Naruto dearly, just as we in this very room do. Perhaps…she cares for him even more than we know, but…" With a shrug, Tsunade offered a lopsided smile and a shake of the head. "It doesn't matter how she feels about Naruto. The point stands that Naruto has done many great things and the very village he served didn't want to acknowledge any of it."

Frowning deeply, Tsunade put a hand over her eyes and gritted her teeth. "But this latest mission…" Taking a deep, unsteady breath in an attempt to settle her nerves and hold back the tears that threatened to fall once more, the Godaime continued on, albeit a bit shakily. "That fucking Uchiha scumbag! He was so jealous of Naruto's growth that he left the village with Orochimaru's henchmen in an effort to gain more power, despite the fact my old teammate only wanted to take the little punk's body and Sharingan eyes for himself."

Releasing another shaky breath, Tsunade did her best to calm her nerves and spoke a bit louder, hoping to relay this last bit clearly for the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni. "I gave Chunin Shikamaru Nara the mission to track Sasuke Uchiha down and retrieve him by any means necessary. I suggested he take Naruto Uzumaki with him on this mission as I felt he would be a great asset to the team. Shikamaru chose a team consisting of Choji Akimichi, his best and closest friend, Kiba Inuzuka, and Neji Hyuga to assist them in this mission."

"According to reports given by various members of both the retrieval squad and Shizune Kato's squad, things became very hectic, very fast. After the Sound Four were attacked by two members of Shizune's Jonin squad, they were alert and prepared themselves for another squad of ninjas. Again from the reports we received from Shikamaru's team, their mission turned south almost as soon as they encountered the Sound Four. One by one, the team was forced to split up and leave one member behind to deal with a member of the Sound Four while the others went ahead to continue the mission. One by one, they won their battles, but some of the Genin were left in critical condition and are still recovering in the hospital today."

Shaking her head, the busty Senju just couldn't help but chuckle dryly. "Eventually, Naruto confronted Sasuke Uchiha at the Valley of the End. While we have no true, _accurate_ account of what took place there thanks to a certain jonin slandering Naruto's name upon his return to the village with the Uchiha's body, we _do_ know that a terrible battle took place there, judging by all the destruction, blood, and more that were found there."

Seeing the Daimyo's eyebrow quirking upwards as if in question, Tsunade nodded slowly, clearly understanding what he wanted to know. So, with a shake of her head, the Godaime continued. "We do not know what was said in the Valley of the End, but Naruto chose to discard his hitai-ate and abandon the village. We know he is not as stupid as the villagers and most people would like to think he is. Naruto most likely knew that the villagers, elders, and other individuals throughout Konoha would be screaming for his execution for killing the Uchiha boy. But…"

When Tsunade looked at Inoichi, the man sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Hai Hokage-sama." Looking straight at the Daimyo, the Yamanaka head began to speak. "Based on the knowledge we have of young Naruto Uzumaki-san, and all that he has experienced, it's natural to assume that he has some psychological issues and has likely bottled up a number of negative emotions. These could have had a negative effect on the boy and caused him to flee the village in pursuit of someplace that would better appreciate him. Or, he could have simply left because he became fed up with the knowledge that most people in Konoha would likely never acknowledge him. In truth, we cannot know for certain what thoughts have been going through young Naruto's mind since he became a Genin up until now, wherever he has gone. The fact of the matter is that nobody but Naruto himself can tell us exactly what's going through his mind."

The Daimyo nodded slowly before closing the file and sliding it forward, motioning for one of the Guardian Ninja to take it and return it to the Hokage. With a heavy sigh, the Daimyo glanced down towards the elders, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, and then back to Tsunade. "That explains the situation regarding Naruto Uzumaki and his treatment to me. But what about the scene I stumbled across upon entering the village? I saw that old war hawk Danzo Shimura attempting to rally the people of Konohagakure against you, Tsunade Senju. From the looks of it, he would have likely succeeded in this endeavor had I not directly interfered and disrupted his plans. It's too bad the bastard escaped, I would have dearly liked to make an example of him for daring to try and use _me_ to further instigate a rebellion! Telling the people they would have my support in such a thing is a preposterous accusation and something I will **not** stand for! Now explain that situation to me Tsunade, because I wish to understand why you have let this village get so far out of control that it requires **my** presence to fix things and keep the figurative shit from hitting the fan!"

While the Shinobi Council flinched back in surprise from the sudden outburst and the elders began shaking where they knelt on the hard floor beneath them, the Godaime Hokage looked calmly into the Daimyo's eyes and nodded her head in understanding. The Daimyo had trusted the people of Konohagakure to manage themselves and to treat all peoples with fairness. In fact, he had been far more lenient with the way Konoha behaved than most other Daimyos would have been in regards to the Hidden Villages in their nations. Now that the Daimyo was here, aware of everything that had been transpired in regards to one Naruto Uzumaki, she could only imagine the level of disappointment and anger flooding through the man in this moment. Danzo's actions upon the Daimyo's arrival likely only cemented things in the Daimyo's mind, and whatever course of action he had decided upon would likely **not** be swayed by anything she or her Shinobi Council said now. Still…

"I understand Daimyo-sama. On behalf of not only myself, but on the behalf of my predecessor, the Sandaime Hokage, I apologize to you sincerely for what has become of this village and its people. While sensei may have been willing to simply let a great number of things slide in his old age, I have been at least attempting to set things right. However, I will not make excuses. We're taking measures to ensure things improve in the village and with the potential ninja recruits that are both currently in the academy and waiting to enter it. Until we have fixed the problem there, the academy is closed and the potential Genin recruits are going to be held back for a time as of yet undetermined. The Genin of Naruto's graduating class and those of Team Guy are undergoing examinations in regards to their mental health among other concerns we may have for them individually."

Sighing to herself, Tsunade closed her eyes and chuckled wryly. "The jonin sensei in charge of Team 7 and the one responsible for slandering Naruto's name further upon returning Sasuke Uchiha's body to the village is undergoing his punishment later today. I'm giving him the harshest punishment available for Sharingan no Kakashi (Kakashi of the Sharingan) befitting his crimes. Sealing his chakra, removing him from the ninja ranks, and removing the eye that helped make him so famous. What we do with the removed Sharingan is up in the air for now. Our plan is to give it to someone more worthy of such a thing; a person that won't abuse it or use it for the wrong endeavors. As of this moment, a proper candidate has yet to be determined."

Frowning at this point, Tsunade continued on in an effort to appease the Daimyo and lower his ire towards the group of people in the room, excluding the elders of course. "As for Danzo Shimura, the Civilian Council, and these two rotten bastards you see kneeling before us…" Shaking her head in disappointment, the Godaime Hokage closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Danzo essentially threatened us with a civil war unless we did the 'right thing' in regards to Naruto Uzumaki. Meaning declare him a missing nin and find a way to drag him back to be the 'weapon' he was 'meant to be'."

Scoffing in disgust, Tsunade shook her head again and narrowed her eyes in anger towards the elders. "Danzo's using ROOT agents to do his bidding right now and keep him and his allies from harm while he does what he can to screw things up further. These two little shit stains before us and the Civilian Council were working with him. It's a good thing those loyal to me in this village caught these two trying to assist Danzo in his effort to rile the people against me so he could initiate a hostile takeover of Konoha and become its new Hokage, with or without your approval, Daimyo-sama."

The Daimyo stared down at the elders in disgust. "And if these two were so allied with Shimura, just how did you manage to capture them? I assume these ROOT agents, a group I thought Sarutobi had ordered **disbanded** by the way, were guarding them?"

At this point, Shikaku Nara nodded his head and spoke up. "Hai Daimyo-sama. However, we expected this and took the necessary precautions before striking. Those of us you see before you and our clans worked together to end the lives of Danzo's ROOT agents guarding these two before capturing them. It's bothersome, but we couldn't let them get away with what they were doing. The people reacted in one of two ways: approval for arresting these two for slandering the good name of the Godaime Hokage, whom they still believe in despite the fact that she supports the 'Demon Child' as they so put it, or they scowled at us and tried to 'convince' us to release the elders. Needless to say, any who had already sided with these two and that traitor Danzo were arrested as well and taken away to enjoy a bit of time with Ibiki and his men. They are in need of proper 'reeducation' after all."

Once more the Fire Daimyo sighed, but he nodded his head in understanding. "I understand. Still, it's a good thing I showed up when I did. Danzo may have escaped, but I doubt the villagers will be doing anything anytime soon." Smirking at the Shinobi Council and the blond Godaime Hokage, the Daimyo said a few words that caused them all to go wide-eyed in disbelief. "To help them realize how badly they screwed up, I 'let it slip' that Naruto is the son of their beloved Yondaime Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki. That should give the village a little something to talk about until a proper course of action can be taken."

When it appeared as if he was about to be questioned on his choice to do such a thing, the Daimyo narrowed his eyes and raised his hand in a signal for silence in the room. "Do not dare to question me in this matter. You have messed up enough as it is. It's time somebody handles this mess. The first thing we are going to do is make Sharingan no Kakashi's punishment a public one. This will send a _very_ clear message to those that hate Naruto. I doubt I need to explain what this message will entail?"

Seeing everyone nod their heads in understanding, the Daimyo smirked wider. "Good. After we have settled that matter, we will then force these two monsters to reveal all of their crimes and the crimes of their dear friend Danzo Shimura. Being as close to him as you two are, you're bound to know plenty of information regarding the terrible things that monster has done. And if my suspicions are correct, I think we'll be hearing something rather interesting, and yet…" Sighing again, the Daimyo shook his head and muttered something under his breath before speaking clearly. "It's nothing."

With a shrug of his shoulders, the Daimyo stared hard at everyone before settling his gaze on Tsunade. "Finally, you're going to make damn well sure that the people of Konoha are all gathered to witness Kakashi's punishment and for the elders to reveal the crimes of Danzo and themselves. The reason for this is mainly because of the third thing we will be doing: announcing Naruto's heritage to the village. These bastards need to know just what they have done and to whom. If any try to deny it or claim our minds have been clouded, you will let **me** deal with it how I see fit. Is this understood?"

Tsunade sighed, but nodded her head in understanding. "We understand Daimyo-sama. It may take an hour or two, but we can get everyone in the village gathered in the village square or in front of the Hokage Tower and its surrounding area. Actually, I think that would probably be the better option considering what is going to happen. So please, just give us the time we need to gather everyone and we'll bring these two and Kakashi Hatake before you Daimyo-sama so we may begin."

Rising from his seat, the Fire Daimyo nodded his head once before turning and walking out of the room. As soon as he had left, Shikaku voiced pretty much everyone's thoughts on what had just happened. "Well, this is going to be a rather troublesome situation."

 _ **Team Samui – Haru no Kuni – Daimyo's Palace**_

After having received their new mission from the Yondaime Raikage, Team Samui had gathered their supplies and set out immediately to begin their mission. With how urgent A had made this mission sound, they did not want to waste any time and had quickly set out for the first location the Raikage had mentioned to them: Haru no Kuni to meet with a Koyuki Kazehana.

It was now a day later and, after arriving by boat late last night, Team Samui had finally made their way to the palace of the daimyo a few short hours after arriving. However, the trip had taken them a bit longer than they would have liked as it was now around nine in the morning and they were fairly tired from the long, rushed trip.

Now, here they stood, staring straight at the famed actress Yukie Fujikaze, otherwise known as the daimyo of Haru no Kuni, Koyuki Kazehana. Bowing their heads, the leader of the team, Samui, spoke up. "Kazehana-dono, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I apologize for disturbing you so early in the day, but we are on a very important mission for Raikage-sama and we were told that you might be able to provide us with some assistance."

Seated upon her throne, the beautiful actress with black hair and blue eyes stared impassively at the people before her, an eyebrow raised the only sign to indicate her intrigue. "This was an unscheduled meeting, and therefore you can hopefully understand why I'm a bit wary regarding your team at the moment. Before you tell me what it is you require of me, tell me your names. You clearly already know mine, so I believe it's only fair."

The busty, blond-haired beauty of Kumo nodded her head and introduced herself and her team. "I am Samui, my red-haired friend is Karui, and the paranoid one is Omoi." Seeing the daimyo nod, Samui decided to voice their reason for being here. "We have come to speak with you about a young man by the name of Naruto Uzumaki. We were hoping you could provide us with some information."

Koyuki narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the mentioning of Naruto's name. Anger bubbled up inside her, quickly assuming the worst about these people and what they might be after Naruto for. However, she kept calm and spoke softly, yet firmly in a rather displeased tone. "If you're after Naruto to hurt him, you will receive no help from me. Naruto is a dear friend and I will not see him harmed by anybody willing to use me to get to him. Now speak your reasons or begone from my country."

As Omoi began to ramble on with his conspiracy theories and letting his paranoia get the best of him again, Samui quickly motioned for Karui to shut him up before turning her gaze back on the actress turned daimyo once more. "I apologize if we worried you, Kazehana-dono. That was not cool of me to scare you like that." Sighing softly, Samui offered a polite, small smile to the woman before her. "A-sama recently received a disturbing message from Konoha in regards to Naruto-san. He is merely concerned for Naruto's wellbeing and wants to find him so we can bring him to Kumogakure where he will be safe and well cared for."

At hearing this, Koyuki's eyes widened slightly in surprise before quickly narrowing in suspicion once again. "Just what is this news that you've heard? If Konoha's been keeping secrets from me regarding Naruto…"

At Koyuki's unspoken threat regarding Konoha, Samui quickly went into her explanation. "It would seem that after Naruto-san was forced to kill the last Uchiha, a boy known as Sasuke, at a location known as the Valley of the End at the border between Hi no Kuni and Oto no Kuni." Seeing the shock written clearly on Koyuki's face, the blond woman nodded slowly as if to confirm what she just said before continuing on. "It seems that the Uchiha left the village in an effort to join an S-rank missing nin by the name of Orochimaru. This was done in an attempt to gain more power, but it would have come at a great cost apparently. It is not cool what that boy did, but Naruto and some of his closest comrades and friends were sent on a mission to retrieve him, and I quote here, 'by any means necessary'."

Nodding her head in understanding, Koyuki Kazehana took a moment to think things over carefully before she began to speak. "From what you're telling me, it sounds as if Naruto wasn't given much of a choice in the matter and his hand was forced when he confronted Sasuke. I have to admit, I was not very fond of that brat's attitude and behavior while Team 7 was escorting me here to my home. Regardless, I did not expect something of this magnitude to occur in the time I have been apart from Naruto-kun. Can you please go on? I would like to hear exactly why Naruto needs to be found. What happened?"

The gorgeous blue-eyed woman nodded her head and began speaking once more. "This may be hard to hear for one that cares for Naruto Uzumaki-san, but after killing the Uchiha, Naruto-san abandoned his village and fled. Nobody knows his current whereabouts, nor do we know if he's safe. From what we understand, things weren't cool in the village of Konohagakure. Naruto-san suffered a great deal while there and received little to no respect, even after doing as much for its people as he did. From what A-sama read in that message, Team 7's jonin sensei, Sharingan no Kakashi, returned to the village with Sasuke's body and announced to the people that Naruto Uzumaki-san had murdered Sasuke Uchiha in cold blood due to, and I'm quoting here, 'Naruto's jealousy of Sasuke'. Apparently, the way this 'man', and I use that word loosely here, explained it to the people, Naruto was so jealous of how much better than him Sasuke was that he finally blew his top and killed the Uchiha. I'm assuming you will agree with us and that this is most likely not the true case of what happened?"

Koyuki Kazehana sighed deeply and shook her head. "Naruto-kun would never do something like that for such a petty reason. Naruto…isn't the kind of person who would kill another senselessly or without reason. In fact…Naruto-kun is one of the purest souls I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. If he wasn't such a wonderful young man, I would not have given him that kiss on the cheek." Smirking at the shocked looks on the Kumo team's faces, she nodded her head slightly. "I care for Naruto-kun a great deal more than most people know. Team 7 as a whole I do not care for, but Naruto-kun is quite different, I assure you."

Samui nodded once more and smiled slightly up at the daimyo. "That's cool to hear. That verifies Naruto-san's character for us and cements our mission for us. We _need_ to find Naruto-san as soon as possible and offer him protection in Kumogakure. I can only speculate why Konoha refused to inform you of Naruto-san's departure from Konoha, but I can tell you the reason is most likely not cool."

The lovely daimyo shook her head and smiled a sad smile. "No need Samui-san. If my suspicions are correct, they simply don't want to lose the trade agreement I formed with them after being crowned daimyo of this nation. But by hiding this from me instead of just speaking with me and being _honest_ about what happened? Well, they've assured just that! Until such a time as either Konohagakure or Naruto-kun himself has proven that Konoha can be trusted to be honest and uphold a sense of decency and respect for those they've allied themselves with, Haru no Kuni will cease all trade between ourselves and Konohagakure. I would say all of Hi no Kuni, but I have no way of knowing whether the Fire Daimyo himself approved of such a foolish line of thinking." Shaking her head, Koyuki Kazehana motioned for her aide to come closer and ordered him to retrieve a pair of scrolls and pen for her so she may write a message to Konoha and one to the Fire Daimyo as well.

Samui, seeing the daimyo looking her way once again, nodded her head and continued. "I would ask if you would be willing to sign a trade agreement between your nation and Kumogakure, but that would not be cool of me to do until we have proven to you that you can trust us and our intentions regarding Naruto-san." Bowing her head politely to show the proper respect to the daimyo, Samui soon looked her in the eyes once more. "We came here to ask you if you had either seen Naruto Uzumaki-san recently or if you had heard anything about his current whereabouts. But, I think it's likely safe to assume that you haven't seen him based off of what just happened. Is that right?"

The blue-eyed daimyo nodded her head in response. "That is correct. If I knew where Naruto-kun was, I would have gone to him in person just to bring him back here where I would do everything in my power to keep him safe from those bastards in Konoha and elsewhere that would do him harm." Sighing deeply to herself, the young daimyo shook her head sadly. "I wish I could help you Samui-san, truly I do. But…Naruto wouldn't come here."

Hearing this, Karui suddenly spoke up, unable to grasp why the boy wouldn't go somewhere that he knew would welcome him right away. "What the heck do you mean by that?! Did we really come all this way for nothing?"

As Samui turned to chastise the redhead, Koyuki narrowed her eyes at her before responding. "You would do well to show respect when speaking to a daimyo Karui-san. But no, you did not waste your time in coming here. In fact, it will help cross a few locations off your list of potential places Naruto-kun would go right now."

Sighing again, the daimyo actress closed her eyes and spoke calmly her explanation. "Naruto's not as dumb as the people of Konoha make him seem. There is no way he would put his precious people in danger for his sake. Besides, he's smart enough to know that this is one of the locations Konohagakure would likely have explored first in an effort to find Naruto-kun, whether I approve of them being in my nation or not. They don't honestly seem like the type to _care_ about such formalities though." Grumbling to herself a moment, Koyuki soon continued on. "The point I'm trying to make is that Naruto will avoid certain places for two reasons. The first is the simple fact that if he visits these places, he's putting them at risk of being targeted by Konoha in an effort to get to him. Hence where the danger part of the equation comes in. The second reason is that he knows Konoha will search for him in these locations first."

Samui and her team nodded in understanding, easily grasping the concept of what she said. After a moment when the daimyo did not continue, Samui spoke up for her group once more. "Excuse me Kazehana-dono, but what locations do you speak of?"

Koyuki shrugged her shoulders and smiled sadly again. "Of course, Haru no Kuni is one such location, as you are already aware. There are two others that I know of based on the adventures Naruto told me about. Nami no Kuni, where Naruto is hailed as a hero and, whether he knows it or not, has a bridge named after him. Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind) and Sunagakure are the other locations. Naruto befriended the Suna siblings, as he called them, at the end of the Chunin Exams and the invasion of his village by Orochimaru's ninja and the Suna ninja. Despite being allies, Konoha wouldn't hesitate to try and 'coerce' them into handing over Naruto should he make an appearance there."

Once again, the members of Team Samui nodded their heads in understanding. With a collective sigh by everyone in the room, Samui spoke up once more. "In that case, can you think of anywhere that Naruto-san might go to hide for a time until he feels it's safe to move again?"

The daimyo of Haru no Kuni smiled softly and nodded her head once. "I would recommend looking somewhere that nobody would truly expect him to go. I may not know of such a place personally, but if you take a look at his last mission and the details involved, you may find the answer you seek." With a simple shrug of her shoulders, Koyuki Kazehana rose to her feet and started walking off. "You may leave whenever you wish, members of Team Samui. If you want to stay for a time to recover yourselves, speak to one of my aides and he, or she, will escort you to some empty rooms you may spend your stay in. For now, I have some letters to write." And with that, Koyuki took the scrolls, pen, and ink bottle from the aide that had just come rushing into the room and soon disappeared to her quarters to do what needed to be done.

After a few moments to discuss what their next course of action would be, Karui approached the aide and smiled awkwardly. "Hey. We kind of need a couple of hours to rest up and relax before we head out again. Could you maybe show us to those rooms Kazehana-dono mentioned? Please?"

The aide nodded slowly before motioning for the group of three to follow her to where they would be staying for the time being. As they walked, Samui thought about the clue Koyuki had given them. _The mission parameters, the circumstances leading up to it, and the death of the Uchiha… Damn it Samui, think!_ Then it hit her as the figurative light bulb lit up in a brilliant flash of light within her head. _That's it! The most likely location Naruto-san would have gone, if he was smart enough to do so, would be where the enemy and his former village would least expect him to go! Oto no Kuni has to be his destination! I just hope that by the time we get there that Naruto-san is either still there, or we can easily pick up the trail. If not…well, it won't be cool._

With a heavy sigh, Samui followed her teammates into one of their rooms and sat herself upon a chair. "I'm positive I know where Naruto-san has gone. But it's some distance away and there's a chance that by the time we get there, he may not even be there anymore. My hope is that we will at the very _least_ find some clue as to his next destination. If not, we're going to be back to square one. Now, if I'm correct, he's likely gone to Oto no Kuni. We will begin our search for him there."

 _ **Konohagakure – Atop the Hokage Tower – Noon**_

As they looked down upon the mass of people that had shown up as instructed, the Fire Daimyo found himself grinning as he spoke to the woman standing next to him. "This is a good turnout. Waiting that extra hour appears to have been worth it. Now bring out Kakashi Hatake. I want them to see his punishment and know that should they continue down this path they have chosen that this could be _them_ next. I will have no tolerance for their behavior. Only when this village and these fools have been fixed will we be able to set Konoha back on the right track once again."

Tsunade nodded and smiled sadly, knowing that what was to come would cause so much strife and confusion amongst the people. But this isn't what bothered her. The fact that this could end up causing even _more_ problems for Naruto is what had her so concerned. Still, she turned and motioned for Team 7's jonin sensei to be brought forth. As soon as the silver-haired scarecrow was brought forward, one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja shoved him roughly down onto his knees and nodded to the Daimyo.

Once more looking upon the people below, the Daimyo decided it was time to make his voice heard. With a nod of his head, one of his guardians used a jutsu to amplify his master's voice. "People of Konohagakure! A great tragedy has befallen this village in recent times, and I am here to remedy the situation!" As he heard murmurs of agreement and people assuming he meant the Uchiha's death, the Daimyo scowled and spoke up once more. "Silence, all of you! I will not tolerate your disobedience or your foolish assumptions that I feel the same way about that little Uchiha snot as you blind fools do!"

Seeing their looks of disbelief and murmurs of discontent, the Daimyo once more ordered them to be silent. "That's right, the Uchiha's death was, and still _is_ justified. That little runt decided to abandon the village and go to one of Konoha's greatest traitors, Orochimaru of the Sannin, for power. Why did he do such a thing you may ask? Because that's all he cared about. Power. He wanted power to enact revenge on his brother for simply doing as he was ordered to do. That's right, the great Uchiha Massacre? Itachi Uchiha never would have done that for selfish reasons. That boy loved this village with all his heart, but he loved his family as well. The fact of the matter is that those Uchiha you loved were planning a coup to overthrow the Sandaime and take over. Power-hungry fools."

Shaking his head for but a moment, the elderly Daimyo continued on. "More will be spoken about that incident in a moment. What's important is that you know what you have done to one of your own! Naruto Uzumaki simply performed his duties admirably for this village and you let this monster right here, one Kakashi Hatake, convince you otherwise! Look carefully at this man and watch, because what is done here to this beast will serve as a reminder to those simpletons amongst you about what can and **will** happen if you ever, **ever** step out of line again! Tsunade-san, begin with Kakashi's punishment. No painkillers; make sure his screams can be heard throughout the village. They need to know **exactly** what's in store for them should any of them think they can follow in his footsteps."

Once more the Senju woman could only nod before going to work. The first thing she did was focus chakra into a sealing tag Jiraiya had given her for this moment that would do the job of sealing away Kakashi's chakra. Once that was done, she proceeded to announce to the whole village that Kakashi would no longer be a ninja and was now incapable of doing as little as using chakra to enhance his speed or strength. All of his chakra was now forever beyond his reach. When it came time for the final part of Kakashi Hatake's punishment, he started screaming curses at the 'Demon Lover', as he referred to Tsunade as, and watched as she removed his headband and threw it to the ground at the people's feet.

With a heavy sigh, Tsunade turned to glance down at the people below and let a small, barely noticeable smirk play on her face. "People of Konoha. You cherish that 'beloved' Sharingan of the Uchiha so much? Well today, the Sharingan that made Kakashi Hatake so famous will no longer belong to him! That eye will find a better home in somebody worthy of such a gift!" Staring coldly into Kakashi's eyes, the blond Senju woman grinned evilly as she activated a medical jutsu and carefully carved into Kakashi's skull, removing the eye with the utmost precision and care so as not to damage it. Of course, the entire time this was happening, Kakashi was screaming in agony from the pain induced by such a procedure. It would seem that even the most battle-hardened shinobi would have difficulties with this particular procedure. Then again, Tsunade and the Daimyo both _did_ want to make the bastard suffer for his crimes.

Upon removal of the eye, the Godaime Hokage quickly ordered her assistant and close friend Shizune Kato forth and proceeded to seal away the eye into the proper storage container and then from there into a storage scroll locked with two blood seals; one for Tsunade Senju, the other for Shizune Kato. Only with the both of them could this eye be retrieved once again.

Seeing that the procedure was done, the Fire Daimyo ordered Kakashi to be dragged to his cell to rot. Turning back to the crowd, the Daimyo pointed back to the elders and ordered his Guardian Ninja to bring them forth. "Now that you understand what will happen to those of you that dare to tarnish the good name that once and should _still_ belong to the village of Konohagakure, let us continue."

Glaring down at everyone, the Daimyo spoke loudly so there would be no questioning of his decisions. "There are those of you that dared to support these two wretches and you will be found and dealt with in due time. I promise you that. But that is neither here nor there at the moment. Now we learn of their crimes and the crimes of the one known as Danzo Shimura. These three monsters have done a lot of harm over the years and gone behind the Hokages' backs numerous times in the past to do some terrible things. One of which I mentioned earlier: the Uchiha Massacre."

Hearing the gasps and seeing the looks of disbelief on the faces of the people below caused the Daimyo to smirk ever wider. "I doubt that, even as your Daimyo, that you'll truly believe me. After all, you'll all blindly follow anything these monsters and their compatriot say. You let these fools lie to you all this time about a certain Genin that was given little choice **but** to flee this village due to you ignorant bigots. So, in order to assure that the truth is given, your Godaime and I instructed Jiraiya of the Sannin to prepare a little something to guarantee that these gluttonous beasts tell the truth of that event and more. In fact, elders, stick out your tongues."

The elders scowled at this, but did as instructed. Despite how high up they were, for those with better eyesight and those that squinted just enough, they could see what the Daimyo was trying to show the people as the elders were forced to reveal the tops of their tongues to those below them.

Just as one of the Hyuga clansmen was about to speak up, the Daimyo raised his hand for silence and nodded. "Yes, Jiraiya placed a seal on both of their tongues. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that after what information these fools gave us in regards to a seal Danzo places on his dear ROOT soldiers, well…this one's far less cruel." _Doesn't mean it won't be good to see the end result though._ He thought silently to himself at the end.

After they were instructed to speak, the elders groaned and reluctantly began telling the truth about the Uchiha Massacre to the crowd below. The more they revealed, the worse the crowd reacted. Between the coup planned by Fugaku Uchiha and a number of others, these awful people had actually ordered Itachi to be the one to kill them all himself. Afterwards, rather than admit the truth, they would help make Itachi out to be a monster. But more than that, it's what they revealed about Danzo and the eyes he collected for himself that truly disgusted them. What's more is the fact that the Daimyo and Tsunade herself were just hearing about this for the first time. The elders hadn't revealed this information before, so it came as quite a shock to hear that Danzo had managed to gain so much from such atrocious acts!

Homura sighed and then nodded his head at his old friend, Koharu Utatane. Turning his head to Tsunade, the man smiled apologetically. "There were things even we would not have approved of that Danzo did anyway. That man is a being that _craves_ war and the conquest it brings to the victor. But there is one thing he always wanted, yet could never attain. That man never became Hokage and it infuriated him. It still eats at him to this very day. So, in his efforts to 'fix things', the monster that we once knew as our friend worked with Orochimaru, your old teammate. There were experiments performed to give Danzo a new arm, one that would allow him to use the Mokuton (Wood Release) that once belonged to only your dear grandfather. The experiments were a success, but…"

Koharu sighed at this point and nodded her head before continuing from where her teammate left off. "Danzo did a great many things we may be unaware of, but the things we do know are…terrible." Gritting her teeth in frustration, the old woman closed her eyes and began to shake. "We went along with it all because we just want what's best for Konoha, that's all we've ever wanted. Hiruzen's ways just…he was a naïve old fool and we were tired of it! But Danzo? He takes things to the extreme and all he cares for is war and his own ambitions. All the while he claims it's 'for the good of Konoha'. We believed that too…for a time."

Homura decided to speak up again as he stared down at the populace of Konoha. "There…are a few things regarding Naruto Uzumaki that we wish to say. One is regarding his life here in Konohagakure and why it was the way it was here for him. The second…has to do with a great crime that happened to his clansmen and the island of Uzu no Kuni (Land of Whirlpools)."

Koharu nodded in turn with her compatriot. "On the night of Naruto's birth, you all know that the Kyuubi attacked our village. What you do _not_ know is that somebody was responsible for that night. The truth didn't get out to you before simply because we do not have any proof about who was responsible for the attack on the individuals targeted that night. What we all know is that young Naruto Uzumaki, not even a day old at the time of the attack, had the Kyuubi no Yoko sealed within him by the Yondaime Hokage."

Once more the male of the two continued from where his friend left off. "While many called for Naruto's death, the vast majority of us that understood the situation realized that Naruto was simply a young child cursed with a terrible burden. But, at the same time…" Frowning deeply, the grey-haired man found himself unable to push the words out of his mouth.

In Homura's stead, Koharu spoke up. "Naruto had the potential to become a powerful weapon that would be used to protect our great village." Seeing the scowls deepen on not only the Daimyo and Tsunade's faces, but on the faces of those around them as well, Koharu shook her head and sighed again. "So seeing this, and after Hiruzen's decisions regarding Naruto living a normal life…Danzo came up with an idea that we helped him put into play."

Homura grumbled something for a moment before he picked up again. "As per his plan, we revealed to the public that Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed within him. But we spun a fabricated tale about how the Yondaime managed to give the beast human form to make it easier for us to kill. From then on, we knew that you, the villagers, would make that boy's life hell. But, we told ourselves this was for the greater good."

Koharu nodded calmly and, once again choosing to ignore the looks of loathing given to the two of them, she continued on. "The plan was for Naruto to suffer so much that he would come to feel truly alone and unwanted. After living his life in such a way for long enough to feel hopelessly lost with no direction other than wishing for death, a single ray of hope would shine forth in the darkness for him. Danzo would have approached young Naruto at this moment and taken him in and trained him to become a tool for the village, utilizing his ROOT program to turn him into a mindless beast of destruction used for war. But, Hiruzen, whether intentionally or not, intervened and gave that little boy the kindness he so desperately needed. Danzo's plan blew up in our faces."

At this point, before either Tsunade or the Daimyo could say anything, Homura chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head. "And to think, that's probably not the worst crime Danzo has committed regarding an Uzumaki."

Dreading what they were about to reveal, Tsunade wanted to say something, but found herself rooted to her spot, a look of apprehension on her face as she awaited whatever may come.

Heedless of the nervousness the blond Godaime Hokage was experiencing, Homura continued his speech. "The destruction of Uzushiogakure. Danzo…played a critical role in that event." Glancing straight into Tsunade's eyes, Homura smiled sadly and shook his head. "We…did not assist him with this. We advised him against it even. But…Danzo had no love for your grandmother's people. They were our allies and should have been treated with the respect and love we give our own people! But…"

Koharu frowned and nodded her head again. "Danzo didn't see it that way. Just because they were our allies didn't mean that they wouldn't one day turn against us. That's how he viewed it. And being the paranoid, power-hungry, evil fool he is, Danzo didn't once think about the way the Uzumaki's were! They treated their allies like family! Family was important to them and always was! Kushina Uzumaki was a wonderful example of what the Uzumaki represented. And the wife of our Shodaime Hokage was an Uzumaki as well! Danzo…Danzo…!"

Homura gnashed his teeth for a moment before speaking out in a snarl. "Danzo utilized his ROOT soldiers to ruthless efficiency. He used those other villages to attack Uzushiogakure. Tricked them into believing that the Uzumaki would one day use their power to crush them all for Konohagakure. He laid the seed of doubt in their minds and that doubt led to fear. And when the Uzumaki's learned of what was about to transpire and sent people to Konoha to ask for aid in the coming battle? Danzo's ROOT…murdered any that fled towards Konohagakure. Kushina…was already here by that time and…"

Sighing heavily to themselves, Koharu picked up where her friend left off. "Kushina was lied to about what transpired. She never knew the truth before her demise. Now, if her son were to learn what Danzo did to his clan…"

As the two went quiet and lost themselves to their thoughts, Tsunade collapsed to her knees, brought a hand to cover her mouth, and broke down into a fit of sobs as tears poured forth from her eyes. _That monster! That_ _ **bastard**_ _! All those innocent people! Just…why?! There was no reason to ever do something like that! You selfish, stupid, fucking bastard!_ Then her thoughts turned towards Naruto and how he would react and she clenched her eyelids shut tight, feeling more tears stinging at them within seconds. _Naruto…if you were here, hearing all of this…what would you have done I wonder._

The Fire Daimyo found himself clenching his teeth tightly together while his hands were balled into fists. Eventually he reigned in his anger and glared heatedly at the two elders kneeling before him. The village had gone quiet at their revelations, and many people were left in tears and in a state of shock. Those that could still focus and think clearly, despite what they just heard, paid careful attention to what the Daimyo was about to do.

Sighing deeply, the Daimyo stepped behind the elders and ordered two of his Guardian Ninja forward. "Have you revealed all of the information you have on Danzo and his crimes to the people? Is there anything more you have to say?"

The elders sighed and nodded their heads, explaining to the people just a few more minor things, at least in comparison to the big, figurative bombshell that they had just dropped mere moments ago, before closing their eyes and announcing that they were finished. Nodding to himself, the Daimyo spoke just a few words. "Very well then. Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, for your crimes towards this village and Naruto Uzumaki, as well as aiding the criminal Danzo Shimura in not only some of his crimes, but in hiding what he had done, you are both sentenced to death. Farewell." And with a quick motion of his hands, the Guardian Ninja to his right and left both formed a single hand seal and everyone watched as the elders convulsed for a brief few moments before they both collapsed to the side, dead from thousands of volts of electricity literally frying their brains. All of this was courtesy of the very seals Jiraiya had placed on their tongues.

Looking out upon the village and its people once more, the Daimyo spoke out once again. "Now for the final reason we have called you all here today. It's to prove to you just how much you screwed up!" Seeing the looks of outrage and confusion brought a smug smile to the face of the daimyo. However, when some started yelling at him, the Daimyo practically snarled. "Shut up, the lot of you! You may think you're all innocent and fine, upstanding beings, but the truth of the matter is that you screwed up so terribly that I had to come here to fix the mess that **you** made! Hatake's punishment and the elders' execution is just the tip of the iceberg in my opinion to how badly you messed up."

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the elderly Daimyo shook his head and grumbled bitterly before continuing. "The one you have consistently referred to as 'Demon Child' is anything but! Naruto Uzumaki is a victim, just as these two now deceased bastards explained it to you! If it weren't for Naruto, the Kyuubi would be free to continue its rampage unimpeded with no one to stop it! And yet, it seems that even after having this all explained to you by these two scumbags lying dead at my feet you can't believe it. It seems that you all truly believe it in your blackened hearts and souls that Naruto Uzumaki is the demon. I don't care if it's hard to remove that view from your minds after having 'known the facts' for as long as you have. I won't be leaving until I've corrected your damn mindsets and fixed this situation!"

Knowing what he was about to say would have mixed reactions, most likely a lot of them negative, the Daimyo took another deep breath to prepare himself. "Naruto Uzumaki is not what or who you think he is. That boy is the son of two great heroes of this village and perhaps the last of his clan! Your beloved Yondaime Hokage and his wife Kushina Uzumaki are Naruto's parents. They died for this village in the hopes that you would treat their son as the hero he is! That was their greatest wish, and you assholes **spat** on that wish! If the Yondaime and his wife were still alive today, I guarantee you that they would be _beyond_ disappointed in this cesspool of a village! How dare you monsters beat that boy, ignore him, overprice him for goods bought at your stores, and more, all in the name of your precious Yondaime Hokage?! You haven't the right to even speak his name, let alone condemn his son to the life of torture you bastards did! You should all be ashamed of yourselves you miserable wretches!"

The Fire Daimyo closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. "Naruto Uzumaki had the lineage and the makings of a great man, and perhaps the potential to be one of the greatest Hokages this village had ever seen. Now? I highly doubt that that poor boy will ever return. You never made this feel like a home for him. Oh sure, **some** of you may have been kind to the boy and cared a great deal for him, some far more than others. But…" Looking coldly down upon the people, the Daimyo sneered at them and continued speaking. "I doubt any of you truly took the time to get to know the boy and understand the pain he was in every day he was here. The great things that boy has done in the name of this village were spat on by you bastards while you praised the Uchiha for a job well done! After all, how could the 'Demon Brat' **ever** do anything better than your 'dear Sasuke'? I hope you're proud of yourselves. You praised a traitorous scumbag and chased out a hero. I'm done. I've said what I had to say, now it's up to you whether you'll believe the truth and make amends, or if you choose to continue down your path of blind hatred and bigotry."

Once the Daimyo had said his piece, he turned and began to walk back inside the tower. However, he stopped in his tracks the very moment he heard one of the villagers below screaming out to the crowd of people. His words infuriated him and the Daimyo quickly motioned to one of his Guardian Ninja to deal with the problem.

Down below, a civilian man that had been listening to everything said throughout the day had climbed up onto something high enough so that he could be seen by everybody around him and began to shout to make his voice heard. "Don't listen to that old fool! The Demon clearly has all of them under some kind of spell! There is absolutely **no** way that little monster could **ever** be the son of the Yondaime! The Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi so we could kill it! That's the truth, we all know it!"

Before anyone could say anything to either agree with the man or refute his statements, and before the man could say anything more, the Guardian sent to deal with him appeared behind the man and ran him through with his katana. The people watched as the man slumped to the ground lifelessly, blood pooling around his body as the Guardian disappeared back to his previous position.

Tsunade shook her head and sighed in disappointment. These people just would not **ever** believe the truth now that they've heard it, would they? Glaring down at them, the Godaime decided to throw in a few words herself. "Naruto never had any of us under his 'spell' as that idiot put it. He doesn't have that kind of ability! In case you idiots have forgotten, he doesn't have the chakra control to use **any** genjutsu, let alone one strong enough to trick all of us into doing everything he says! You people are blind fools! If it wasn't for Naruto, I wouldn't have ever returned to this village! I came back here because of him! I hoped dearly to see Naruto become Hokage one day because I truly believed in him! I **knew** he could change your views of him given enough time. But it seems…I was wrong. You fools can't ever see past your blind hatred of him when he never did anything to warrant such treatment from any of you."

Grumbling to herself, the brown-eyed Hokage scoffed and continued. "Tch. You're all a bunch of pathetic fools. As of this moment, if any of you are caught speaking out against Naruto or attempt to sway the opinions of others to believe he's some kind of monster, you'd better be prepared for the consequences. We're trying to fix this village, and if that means we have to 'reeducate' you by means of torture, then so fucking be it! One way or another, you _will_ come to realize the truth and you _will_ regret your actions. Now get the hell out of my sight and think about what you rotten bastards have done!"

Snarling in anger to herself, the blond Godaime followed the Daimyo inside of her office to speak with him privately. They clearly needed to come up with some kind of plan to deal with the fallout of their actions today.

 _ **Naruto – Eastern Hi no Kuni**_

Naruto suddenly came to a stop and felt his whole body shiver. A scowl quickly came to his face and he clenched his fists tight. The orange-haired lass that had been walking beside him looked at the blond youth with concern. Reaching out a hand, she touched his arm and gently shook him to get his attention. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?"

Naruto nodded slowly as he took the time to think about what caused that sudden reaction. Sighing quietly, he looked at the three women with him and frowned deeply. "I just have this strange feeling that something just happened that would've really pissed me off if I had been around to see it. Or…hear it. Whatever. All I know is that I have a weird feeling things are just getting worse for me I guess." With a shrug of his shoulders, the young man pulled out his map and looked at the location he was headed to with this group. As he did this, he began to think back to what happened just yesterday and how he ended up travelling with these three.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _After escaping from the Otogakure hideout, it was already evening. Naruto and the three females of the Fuma clan stopped and began to discuss the events that had just transpired and what they should do now. After apologizing for what happened with Arashi, Naruto began to explain his plans._

 _"I'm not sure about you three, but I'm still on the run from Konoha, Orochimaru, and the Akatsuki right now. So I need to keep moving. You three should be safe now to go wherever you want and do whatever you feel you need to do. Like I promised Arashi however, I_ will _find some way to help restore the Fuma clan to its former glory. It will just take me some time to think of the answer to that puzzle. For now, I think I'm going to venture south, back through Hi no Kuni, and towards Cha no Kuni (Land of Tea). Then from there I plan to hop a boat that will take me to Umi no Kuni (Land of the Sea). It seems like a good place to go if I want to keep my enemies guessing about where the hell I am."_ Well, there's that and I feel like that's the place I need to go next for some reason. Not like I can really tell them that. What would I even say? 'Oh, I have a feeling this is where I should go next. No idea why, just call it a gut feeling, but there ya go!' Wait…that might have actually made more sense than…never mind. Stop thinking to yourself Naruto!

 _As Naruto was losing himself to his thoughts and devolving into some form of argument with himself in his thoughts, the Fuma women were looking over the map as well. After seeing the route he planned to take, they knew that, based on what they knew of him, that he would be crossing dangerously close to Nami no Kuni and putting himself at risk of being discovered and caught, perhaps worse. Looking into each others' eyes, the three Fuma clanswomen nodded their heads and turned to speak with Naruto._

 _The one to speak for them was Kagero. "Naruto-kun, please listen." As soon as she had his attention, the beautiful young woman smiled kindly at him. "Firstly, let me thank you on behalf of the Fuma clan for helping us the way you did. You did not have to, but you chose to put yourself in harm's way to rescue us from our own folly. We owe you a debt of gratitude."_

 _When Naruto went to wave the thanks off and say it wasn't needed, Kagero shook her head and smiled a tad brighter. "Please do not interrupt Naruto-kun. It's bad manners." Chuckling softly to herself as he instantly quieted down, the teal green-haired woman continued on. "In the path that you have chosen, you are bound to cross dangerously close to a location where you, yourself, said that people were bound to be looking for you: Nami no Kuni. While I'm sure you would be fine, I would ask that you please allow us to accompany you to your destination. We could help keep you safe from harm, and even help you train."_

 _Taking a deep breath, the blue-eyed woman continued. "As you have no doubt realized, we each have our own specialties that we can instruct you in. Myself in disguises, namely the perfection of the_ _Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)_ _. Kotohime is great with Genjutsu, namely those based utilized through sounds such as music and echoes. She has a few other things she could easily teach you as well. Sasame-chan is great with stealth and traps, but she also makes for really good company, as I'm certain you've no doubt noticed."_

 _Upon hearing the lovely Fuma woman say that last line, both youngsters blushed and chanced a glance at each other before quickly looking away in opposite directions. They had only just met earlier in the day, and having Kagero tease them about their already fairly close friendship just bothered them. Naruto may have just been embarrassed by Kagero's teasing, but for Sasame it was a tad different. After all, Naruto was already a hero to her and she respected him a great deal already. If she were perfectly honest with herself, she would admit that she had a small crush on the boy. In time, it could very likely turn from a crush into something deeper, but only time would tell._

 _Deciding to get the topic off of the two of them, Naruto spoke up again. "If you're going to come with me, you should already be aware of the risks that doing so would bring you. Still, I_ would _appreciate the help. So, I thank you for being so willing to aid me regardless of what could happen. Though you should know that I don't really have any aptitude for Genjutsu. Kiyoko, the Kyuubi, and I are trying to think of some way to fix this problem, but…for the time being, Genjutsu is out. I'm sorry Kotohime-san."_

 _The black-haired young woman shook her head and waved his apology off. "It's fine Naruto-kun. Just let me know whenever you and Kiyoko-chan have come up with a solution and I'll be glad to teach you what I know about Genjutsu. In the meantime, I can easily teach you everything you could ever need to know about poisons and drugs of all kinds. Trust me, that knowledge could be a great asset in the future should you ever need to assassinate somebody."_

 _Naruto sweat dropped when the beautiful seductress giggled after talking about assassinating people. He had a feeling that she could likely teach him other important tools for just such an objective, but he couldn't help but worry he might end up going a little crazy himself by simply studying under her. With a shrug of his shoulders, the young Uzumaki knocked that thought right out of his head and rose to his feet._

 _After taking the map back from Kagero and slipping it away, Naruto clapped his hands twice before grinning at his new companions. "If we're going to journey together, we should get started. I'd like to be out of Oto no Kuni by nightfall if at all possible. I don't want to be here by the time Oro-teme finds out his base here was destroyed and that I had a hand in it. Once we're out of here and back in Hi no Kuni, then we can figure out some kind of training regimen and figure everything else out. Sooo, let's go!"_

 _ **End Flashback**_

The group had indeed made it out of Oto no Kuni by nightfall, but they were soon forced to camp out due to how dark it had become. As they sat around that night, the quartet had indeed discussed their plans for the future and what each of them would specifically teach Naruto. Upon setting up a training schedule of sorts, they had agreed to take some time during their travels to relax and focus on training the young Uzumaki. It would be dangerous to try such a thing in Hi no Kuni, but it was a huge nation and they were but a group of four people who knew not to bring too much attention to themselves, so it should be safe to train lightly while wandering through Hi no Kuni.

As soon as morning had arrived, Sasame, who had been the fourth person on watch for the night, woke the group and they had set out once more after eating a light breakfast. Now, looking at the map in his hands, Naruto pinpointed their location and looked from that spot to where the small nation of Nami no Kuni lay.

"Hmm, it would seem we're getting closer to where Tazuna's bridge is likely to be. I just hope nobody sees through my transformation while we're passing by." Naruto said quietly, more to himself than the others with him.

The orange-haired young woman walked closer to him and gently grasped his hand. "Don't worry Naruto-kun. No matter what happens, we're here with you. We'll fight together should it come to that and we'll protect you no matter what. It's the least we could do after all you did for us and _will_ do for us in the future."

Naruto smiled at his friend and gently squeezed her hand back. "Thank you Sasame-chan. Thank you as well Kagero-san, Kotohime-san. Again, I truly appreciate this. But we really must continue moving forward." Receiving nods in response, the group of four continued on, soon coming across the visage of a great bridge just a short distance away.

As they walked, the Fuma girls couldn't help but gawk at the size of the bridge, while the blond Genin smiled fondly in remembrance of the family that was so kind to him during his stay. However, as soon as he saw the name of the bridge, Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. _No way. They named the freaking bridge after me?! That. Is. AWESOME!_

As Naruto chuckled quietly to himself, the Fuma women looked at the plaque and read the information before turning to quirk eyebrows at Naruto. Knowing that enemies could very likely be waiting somewhere nearby, they didn't say anything to bring attention to Naruto. Coming to a quick decision, they agreed to ask him about it later and quickly moved to proceed forward, past the bridge so they could continue southward to Cha no Kuni.

Sadly, just as they were passing by the bridge, two groups appeared on either side of them. From behind them, just finishing crossing the bridge into Hi no Kuni, was a group of Kirigakure shinobi and kunoichi. They were led by an aged man with blue hair and an eye patch.

The second group that had appeared in front of them was a group of masked individuals that appeared to be ANBU of Konohagakure, though their masks were strange to Naruto. They didn't look like regular ANBU. If he had to guess, he'd say they very likely didn't work for the Hokage.

As all three groups looked each other over, Kagero took a step forward towards the group in front and politely bowed her head. "Excuse me, but are we in some kind of trouble? We were just passing through and were hoping we could be on our way."

Receiving no spoken reply, both the Kiri group and Naruto's group watched as the mysterious masked individuals drew their weapons and charged the lone male in Naruto's group. As they approached, Naruto found that he could only utter a few simple words. "Well shit."

* * *

 **A/N: I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've been having a bit of a rough time since I updated this story with the second chapter, hence why it took me a while longer to get this one written up and uploaded. I haven't been able to get a whole hell of a lot of sleep, so I wrote almost this entire chapter while being dead tired! But more than that, I've been rather sick as well. I know, it seems I'm feeling ill rather often. Sadly, it's been this way since I was born. Haven't quite been able to figure out why it is that I'm as sickly as I am, the doctors I've seen figure the best guess would be an event that happened when I was born (no, I won't go into details), but there's really no way to know for sure from what I can gather. *shrugs* Ah well.**

 **Anyways, enough of that crap. As you can see, this chapter was mostly centered on the crap going on in Konoha at this moment in time. I had planned to do a timeskip at the end of the chapter to where Naruto and the Fuma clanswomen would end up closer to their destination, but I had a look at some interesting maps for the Naruto world. I found that, after searching for quite some time, that there is a surprising lack of decent, detailed maps for the world of Naruto. I found one on deviantart that looked good that was based off of a couple of maps I saw on Narutopedia and another Naruto information site, and so I went with it. After seeing the route Naruto would have to take to get to where I want him to be next, I saw a perfect place to leave things off in a cliffhanger! Sooo...there ya go! lol.**

 **Anyways, now that I've finished this chapter up and got it uploaded, I think I am going to be calling it an early night. Probably. I dunno. Wish I knew. Stomach's kind of dictating my sleeping schedule right now. *sighs***

 **Oh, one last thing! The first chapter of a new crossover fic is coming up next. Sooo, keep an eye out for that! Remember that if you have any questions you can send me a PM or leave a review and I'll do my best to get back to ya. I DO read all the reviews, but I don't reply to all of them. Some I just have nothing to really say in response to, others are simple enough that they don't really warrant a reply, and then others are just flames and crap that I really just won't pay any attention to. *shrugs* So...joy! lol.**


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